Former SEC baseball trainer killed in Buckhead crash had ‘megawatt smile’

Wells, whom friends knew for his “megawatt smile,” had spent four years at Kentucky, including during the Wildcats’ 2024 run to the College World Series.

His sudden death shattered his friends and family. He’d been heading home from work April 7, not knowing he’d cross paths with a suspect in a robbery at a Chick-fil-A in DeKalb County.

The deadly crash was the first of two to occur at busy Atlanta intersections amid police pursuits within a week.

“Death is one of the few guarantees in this world, but it was just somebody who is 26, no diagnosis, nothing like that. The finality of it was just kind of shocking, and it really just hurt,” Josh Walker, Wells’ former boss at the university, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday.

For his former colleagues, some of whom had just met up with him at a Kentucky-Georgia baseball game in Athens, the news was surreal.

“I just saw him three weeks ago, like, ‘No. You’re kidding,’” said Matt May, the team’s communications director. “You know that they’re not kidding, but you hope that they’re kidding.”

Credit: Sarah Caputi

Credit: Sarah Caputi

Wells landed at Kentucky for a two-year fellowship that would later turn into a full-time position. He had a bachelor’s degree in athletic training from the State University of New York at Cortland, according to his obituary.

While at the university, he spent nearly every day with Walker, also an athletic trainer. Both Walker and May said Wells was an ambitious hard worker who enjoyed plenty of success but also wanted to elevate others.

“He cared for people deeply,” Walker said. “He wanted to dive below the surface of what made a person a person.”

It was a quality that gave Wells a golden touch when it came to rehabbing injured players.

“Every injury he rehabbed in the training room, I feel like came back quicker than it should because he was going to be that guy that saw the light at the end of the tunnel for everybody,” Walker said.

Late last week, a group of Wells’ friends flew to Kentucky to reminisce about the impact he had on their lives. They gathered first for the university’s baseball game against the Texas Longhorns, during which a moment of silence was held for Wells. Then, the group migrated to his favorite restaurant.

Credit: Caleb Bowlin

Credit: Caleb Bowlin

“We did a toast to him, and somebody said ... ‘Richie’s legacy lives on in how we all now live out the things that he instilled in us,’” Walker said.

The Georgia State Patrol is investigating the deadly wreck. Santario Barnwell, the 23-year-old driver accused of crashing into Wells’ vehicle, faces several charges, including murder, first-degree vehicular homicide, fleeing and attempting to elude, reckless driving and disobeying a traffic control device, according to the GSP.

Atlanta police spotted the suspect’s vehicle less than an hour after he allegedly went through the fast food eatery’s drive-thru window, took a cash drawer and sped off, officials said. They said Atlanta police tried to stop Barnwell, but he refused. The pursuit ended when the suspect ran a red light, crashing into Wells’ vehicle, authorities said.

Barnwell also was injured and taken to a hospital. An update on his condition has not been provided, and Fulton County jail records do not show he’s been booked.

On Monday, another pursuit ended in a crash that killed a bystander at an intersection in busy Little Five Points. That one was initiated by state troopers, who said they had tried to stop a vehicle for speeding and driving erratically on I-20.

Cooper Schoenke, 19, died as he traversed the intersection of Moreland and McLendon avenues. The fleeing driver, identified by authorities as Faduma Mohamed, 23, blew through that red light and ran into Schoenke’s Honda Accord, officials said.

That crash has sparked calls from some lawmakers and activists to reform the GSP’s pursuit policy, which is much more lenient than the Atlanta Police Department’s.