A Kansas pickup driver was released without charges after her truck killed a 6-year-old boy and a man on a Wichita soccer field, leaving families and police still searching for answers.
A Chevrolet pickup left a parking space and drove onto a youth soccer field at Stryker Sports Complex in northeast Wichita around 3:25 p.m. Saturday, killing two people on the spot and sending others to hospitals.
Fox News reported that Cole Adrian, 6, and Nicholas Schafer, 35, both of McPherson, Kansas, died on the field despite lifesaving efforts. The two were not related.
Ten people suffered injuries described as noncritical. Five of them were children: a 5-year-old girl, a 5-year-old boy, two 8-year-old boys, and a 9-year-old girl. Five adults ages 28 to 68 were also hurt. A 61-year-old woman was hospitalized for medical complications unrelated to traumatic injuries, bringing the total transported to 11.
Wichita police took a 34-year-old woman into custody, then released her without charges while toxicology results and a mechanical exam of the truck remain pending.
Capt. Aaron Moses told reporters Saturday the woman held a valid license, had no outstanding arrest warrants, and was cooperating. Two of her children were inside the pickup. Another of her children was playing soccer on a different field at the complex.
By Sunday, police announced her release after interviewing more than 30 witnesses, including the children who had been in the truck, and after consulting the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office. Investigators have not determined why the truck left the parking space and entered the field. They have not confirmed an intentional act, a medical emergency, impairment, or any other cause.
Police expect to make an initial case presentation to District Attorney Marc Bennett early this week. The district attorney’s office said it will share information as appropriate after that review.
Wichita Police Chief Joe Sullivan addressed the scene and the open questions.
"What should have been a day of children playing soccer and families spending time together ended in tragedy."
Sullivan also said Saturday: "We know what happened, but now we’re working very hard to find out why it happened."
On Sunday he added that police were thinking of the injured, their loved ones, and everyone who witnessed the crash, and that the families are not alone.
An inaugural girls flag football state championship run by the Kansas State High School Activities Association was underway on an adjacent field. Officials halted play and suspended the games for the rest of the weekend.
Sudden vehicle tragedies leave the same hard questions in other places too, including cases where a van rammed a crowd overseas and killed one person while injuring dozens.
Sporting Wichita Academy posted a statement describing the loss in plain terms.
"Soccer is more than a game. It is a community. It is families in the stands, teammates standing beside one another, and people who come together through a shared love of the game."
The group added: "Today, that community is hurting, and we must lean on one another more than ever." It thanked first responders, medical workers, and bystanders.
Injured people were taken to Ascension Via Christi and Wesley Medical Center.
Meddys, a local restaurant with locations in Wichita and Salina, pledged 20 percent of all revenue from those sites from Oct. 18 through Oct. 24 to the affected families. The business also offered free meals to the immediate families of the injured for as long as loved ones remain hospitalized.
Meddys said it would partner with Kingdom Athletics Mission to receive and distribute donations, including through a GoFundMe set up for the McPherson families.
"With so much to carry right now, figuring out your next meal should not have to be one more worry."
The restaurant continued: "Wichita is our home. These are our neighbors. In moments like this, we take care of one another."
Communities often face the same scramble for facts after other abrupt deaths, whether from a fatal helicopter plunge caught on video or a crash that ends a normal afternoon.
Police asked anyone with information to call investigators at 316-268-4407 or Crime Stoppers at 316-267-2111.
The driver’s name has not been released. Toxicology results are outstanding. The mechanical examination of the Chevrolet pickup is outstanding. No charges have been filed.
Those gaps matter. A truck left a marked parking area, crossed onto a field full of children and parents, and left two McPherson residents dead before anyone could get them off the grass. Five children and five adults were hurt. A championship on the next field stopped cold.
Vehicle-ramming cases elsewhere, including a recent confrontation after a suspect rammed federal agents, show how fast the public demands a full accounting of what the driver did and why.
Here the sequence is clear even while the cause is not. Custody came first. Release without charges came next, tied to pending lab work and the truck inspection, and timed after the witness interviews and the talk with the district attorney’s office. An initial case file is due to reach DA Marc Bennett early this week.
Public fights over how deaths get counted and explained, such as the clash when Kennedy and Oz challenged Pennsylvania measles death claims, only sharpen the demand for hard evidence instead of open-ended delay.
Sullivan’s own words set the standard the department now has to meet: they know the truck went onto the field and killed two people. They still have to prove why.
When a pickup ends a kids’ soccer day with two bodies on the field, families are right to expect a complete investigation and real accountability once the tests and the case file are in, not silence and a shrug.