Sedgwick County district attorney Marc Bennett said the driver in the crash at Stryker Sports Complex last month will not face charges, closing the criminal case after a review that left him with no basis to file one. The pickup struck and killed two people and injured 10 others, but Bennett said the evidence did not support a crime.
Bennett and Wichita police chief Joe Sullivan announced the decision after investigators reviewed videos, emergency calls and witness interviews. Police looked at 60 videos, 41 emergency calls and spoke with more than 100 witnesses before the district attorney reached his conclusion. The search for answers was urgent because the crash unfolded in the middle of a soccer setting, where families were gathered and the pickup ended up on the field of play.
The driver, who was not identified, had driven to Stryker from Garden City with her children, who were playing soccer there that day. Bennett said she reported the pickup was not her usual vehicle and told investigators she was sleeping in it just before the crash, believing she had put it into park. While she was either asleep or falling asleep, one of her children put the sunshades up, and soon after the pickup jumped the curb and went onto the field.
That sequence mattered because Bennett said he considered six possibilities for what caused the crash and ruled out the first five. He did not reach a conclusion on the sixth. For charges to be filed, he said, the act had to be intentional, knowing or reckless, and he determined there was evidence the act was not done on purpose. He also said negligent homicide is not chargeable in Kansas and that the incident did not meet the standard for vehicular homicide, which is a misdemeanor in the state.
The evidence also cut against an impairment case. A blood sample showed no impairing substances, and the driver’s medical records were subpoenaed. Sullivan said those records and the videos offered no evidence that she was impaired. Bennett said the philosophy from the start was to know everything that was knowable, and he said one witness thought they might need to use a gun to subdue the driver. He also said the driver hysterically expressed regret after the incident and told investigators she had no confrontations at Stryker that day.
Bennett said his mind went to the worst-case scenario, but the facts did not support a criminal charge. The crash remains a deadly and painful episode for the people who were there, yet the legal answer is now plain: no charges will be filed, and the unanswered sixth possibility is where the case ends.
