A truck drove through a youth soccer game at the Stryker Sports Complex in northeast Wichita, Kansas, on Saturday afternoon and killed a child and an adult. Police have not said how it reached the field, how fast it was going or why two juveniles were inside it, and those are the answers that will decide what this was.
Wichita Police Capt. Aaron Moses called it a tragedy and said the driver is in custody. Police are treating it as a mass casualty incident, with several other people taken to hospitals.
| Time (Central) | What has been reported |
|---|---|
| About 3:25 p.m. | First 911 calls from the complex, near 29th and Greenwich. |
| About 3:30 p.m. | A truck goes through the youth soccer fields. A witness describes a black pickup that stopped 100 to 200 yards down the fields after hitting multiple people. |
| 5:00 p.m. | Police brief reporters: a child and an adult are dead, others are hurt, the driver is in custody, two juveniles were in the truck, and there is no further threat to the public. |
| Later Saturday | The city cancels every event at the complex. The Kansas State High School Activities Association postpones its flag football state championship. |
The 5 p.m. briefing came about 95 minutes after the first 911 calls. As of Saturday evening, police had released no names, no ages and no cause.
Three Answers Police Have Not Given
How the truck got onto the fields is the first. Moses said he did not know how fast it was going or how it got there.
The second is why two juveniles were in the truck. Police have not said who they are or whether either was hurt.
The third is intent. Police have not said whether they believe the driver meant to do it, and no outlet should fill that blank for them.
We think the blank should stay blank until police fill it. A child is dead, and a guess about motive in either direction is a claim nobody has the evidence to make.
The question about the field is separate, and it will outlast the criminal case. A witness says the truck did not stop until it was 100 to 200 yards down the fields where children were playing, and we think the complex’s operator and the city owe those parents an account of how that was possible, whatever the driver’s reason turns out to be.
Police have asked anyone who filmed the complex to upload it through a public Evidence.com request, and said another briefing would follow Saturday evening. Names, ages and a cause are what that briefing has to supply.