Woman who killed a child at Stryker Sports Complex used a weapon
By Daniel Okafor · Reporting from New York ·
A woman drove a pickup truck into a Wichita soccer game, killing two people and proving that open sports fields cannot protect children without permanent barriers.
The 34-year-old woman who drove a black pickup truck into a youth soccer game in Wichita made a violent choice. She did not just cause an accident. She turned a vehicle into a weapon and drove it into a crowd of children.
A 6-year-old boy and a 35-year-old man died at the scene. According to KAKE, the two victims were unrelated residents of McPherson. They were killed on a Saturday afternoon while children played.
Eleven other people were hospitalized. CNN reported that these injuries were non-life threatening.
A witness told The Guardian that the truck was “plowing through the youth soccer fields”. The vehicle stopped 100-200 yards down the fields. Vanessa Trammell, a witness, said, “It was pure panic.”
The mechanism of the truck
The 2021 Canada Day truck attack shares the same mechanism as the Wichita crash. A driver uses a pickup truck as a weapon to strike pedestrians in a public space.
In that Ontario attack, a driver rammed a family of pedestrians. Four people were killed. The truck provided the mass and speed to ensure death. The truck is not a tool of transport in these moments. It is a blunt instrument of slaughter.
The perimeter failed
The Stryker Sports Complex is a city facility. It underwent a $22 million renovation before the 2018 season. The city spent that money on turf and stadium seats.
Mayor Lily Wu expressed her heartbreak over the incident. Wu is a former local TV news reporter and anchor for KAKE. She now leads a city that left its children exposed to a parking lot.
The complex has 11 outdoor turf fields. A concrete runway leads from the parking lot to the grass. This gap allowed a black Chevrolet Silverado to jump the curb and enter the game.
The city canceled all events at the complex. The Kansas State High School Activities Association suspended flag football championship games at an adjacent field. These reactions come after the blood is already on the turf.
The driver remained at the scene and is in custody. Captain Aaron Moses of the Wichita Police Department said the driver "has been cooperative to this point in the investigation." Cooperation does not undo the deaths of a child and a man.
The Wichita Police Department has not determined if the act was intentional. The facts of the movement—jumping a curb and plowing through a field—carry their own verdict. A driver does not kill a 6-year-old boy by mistake while driving 200 yards into a soccer game.
The Wichita Police Department will likely file counts of first-degree murder and aggravated battery against the driver. The city must now install permanent physical barriers around its sports complexes. Open perimeters are an invitation to the next driver with a grudge and a truck.
Sources
- The Guardian: Two people, including child, killed after person drives through soccer game in Kansas
- CNN: 2 killed, multiple injured after vehicle drives onto field during soccer game at Wichita sports complex
- NBC News: Child, adult killed after vehicle drives through soccer game in Wichita, Kansas
- KAKE: Police on scene of incident with multiple injuries in northeast Wichita
- Anadolu Agency: 2 killed, including child, as vehicle drives through youth soccer game in US