Overcome with emotion, Venus Williams excuses herself from news conference while discussing car crash

Venus Williams tried to answer the question, but she couldn’t.

Following Williams’ 7-6 (7), 6-4 victory over Elise Mertens during the opening round of Wimbledon on Monday, a reporter brought up the fatal car crash the star tennis player was involved in last month.

Williams made a couple of verbal attempts to express herself, then spent more than a minute trying to gather herself before temporarily leaving the news conference.

Last week, police determined that Williams caused the June 9 accident in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., saying she ran a red light and crashed with a car in which 78-year-old Jerome Barson was a passenger.

Barson suffered head injuries during the incident and died two weeks later. Williams has not been cited or charged, but the accident remains under investigation. She is being sued for wrongful death by Barson’s family.

In a Facebook post on Friday, Williams wrote that she’s “devastated and heartbroken” about the accident and offered “heartfelt condolences” to his family and friends.

On Monday, following Williams’ first match since the incident, a reporter asked if she wanted to add anything else to those sentiments. Williams spoke in broken sentences and took several long pauses while attempting to provide an answer.

“That I’m … there are really no words to describe how devastating, and, yeah, I am completely speechless, and it’s just,” Williams said before a lengthy pause. “Yeah, I mean, I’m just … .”

That was all she could muster. Williams eventually started crying and covered her face with her hand, before quietly saying, “Maybe I should go,” and leaving the area. She later returned to finish the news conference.

charles.schilken@latimes.com

Twitter: @chewkiii