Fast Times Turn Deadly in Village Tragedy : Accident: Silverado Canyon resident killed, two others injured when friend racing on narrow road swerves into them. Both drivers are jailed.

Along the winding lanes of rustic Silverado Canyon, Shane Young had a reputation for driving fast--and the speeding tickets to prove it. Jasmin Cook would have known that. The two were neighbors and close friends.

On Sunday night that friendship and this community’s countrified calm were shattered, police said, when Young sped down the canyon in a race with another car and swerved into a trio of people, killing Cook, 20, and injuring two others.

On Monday, Young, 25, of Silverado Canyon, and the second driver, Clint Wamsley, 19, of Hesperia, were in Orange County Jail on suspicion of manslaughter and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

And Silverado Canyon was left grappling with a tragedy that, like much that goes on in this village of just 900, seemed to touch nearly everyone.

“There’s a lot of (sad) faces coming in here this morning,” said Del Clark, who runs the Shadybrook Country Store. “Everybody’s run down about it.”

Neighbors placed flowers near the grim police markings, which showed the roadside spot where Cook was killed--just 100 feet from her own house and a few blocks from Young’s. Others shook their heads in shock as they gathered to compare notes and check on the two people who were injured in the 10:15 p.m. incident.

Shane Graham, 19, who lives across a dirt lane from Cook’s house, was in stable condition at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana. Timothy Smart, 21, who also grew up in the canyon, was in stable condition at the same hospital. Graham had severe chest bruising and Smart had a broken wrist and a concussion.

Police said that Young, driving a Toyota pickup, was racing a Ford Mustang, driven by his friend Wamsley, west along Silverado Canyon Road. Wamsley slowed when he saw the three people heading in the same direction across the street, said California Highway Patrol spokeswoman Angel Johnson.

Young swerved into the opposite lane to avoid the Mustang and his truck struck the three victims near Shady Brook Drive, Johnson said. Cook was walking and the two men were on bicycles, riding slowly alongside her.

Residents scrambled out of their homes at the screech of brakes, some to find their own children had been struck. “My son . . . said, ‘Mom, Mom, I’ve been hit,’ ” said Janet Malyszka, mother of Shane Graham.

A woman next door to the crash site said she was awakened by screams. “A man was moaning, ‘I killed them. I killed them,’ ” said Eileen Denin.

Futile attempts were made to resuscitate Cook. She was pronounced dead at Chapman General Hospital in Orange an hour later.

Johnson said Young was speeding--perhaps exceeding 45 m.p.h.--in a 25-m.p.h. zone. Blood samples from both drivers would be tested for intoxicants. Young and Wamsley were each held on $10,000 bail.

Young’s mother, Diane Young, said her son told her he had not been racing. “There was no racing going on,” she said, declining to comment further.

Friends and neighbors reported having complained of Young’s fast driving in the past.

“I always told Shane and everyone else told Shane to slow down before you kill somebody. And that’s what it took,” said the dead girl’s 17-year-old sister, Shana Cook, who said she used to date Young.

Young had been ticketed for speeding five times since March, 1993, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles. He also had been cited for not having his license with him and twice for not wearing a seat belt. Young also had been ticketed in 1988 for driving while his license was suspended or revoked, according to department records.

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The incident sparked calls for speed humps and more speed-limit signs along the winding road that is the canyon’s main artery.

“It’s not just Shane,” said Robert Anthony, a friend who lives with the Cook family.

Emotions ran high in the remote neighborhood. For several hours Monday, the accident scene on Silverado Canyon Road drew television and newspaper crews. At one point, several people who had gathered at the site roughed up a Times photographer, damaging his camera, exposing his film and pushing him to the ground before bystanders summoned sheriff’s deputies.

Sunday’s tragedy was tinged with dark irony--all of those involved in the accident are longtime neighbors and acquaintances. Cook and Young were said to be the closest of friends.

“She and Shane were really good friends--really close,” Anthony said. “Shane’s got to deal with that, and the law.”

Anthony said Cook’s mother was troubled to see Young, who had visited her house countless times, behind bars. “She doesn’t want him in jail right now. She said, ‘Why did they do this to him? Why did they have to take him away?’ ” he said.

Anthony said Cook’s parents are out of work and without money for the burial. He said a fund would be established to help them.

Shana Cook described her sister as bubbly and loving, but working to overcome personal problems and bored with isolated canyon living. Family members said Jasmin Cook used to work at the now-shuttered Pali Cafe but was not employed at the time of her death. She graduated from Richland High School in Orange in 1992.

“She was fun. I know she wasn’t happy here though,” Shana Cook said, sobbing near the site of her sister’s death.

“She was trying so hard to get her life together,” Shana Cook said. “I guess God made it easy for her.”