Woman drives minivan into Labor Day Kipona festival crowd leaving boy fighting for life
A woman has been taken into custody after a minivan ploughed into a crowd of festivalgoers in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, leaving a 6-year-old boy fighting for his life.
The Kipona Festival was winding down when a the vehicle crashed through barricades and into parked cars at about 6 p.m. Monday, according to the Harrisburg Bureau of Police.
Police said the driver was in a red Honda Odyssey, with the bumper sticker “hella’ kids up in her,” when it went into a crowd on South Front Street near the children’s activities, striking three individuals.
Harrisburg Mayor Wanda Williams said the boy was in critical condition, while a woman using a wheelchair and a man working for the city’s traffic engineering department were in stable condition.
Police chased the van on bicycles for six blocks before it crashed into another barricade and came to a stop near North Front Street and Cranberry Street. The suspect was wearing a shirt that said “Mom” and had two children’s car seats in the vehicle, according to PennLive.
Several witnesses told CBS 21 News that the woman was honking her horn and crashing into “anything in her way” as she barreled down Front Street.
“This car came flying down through here fast,” Lottie Beauvard, a vendor at the annual Labor Day festival, told ABC 27. “Not yelling or anything, but just flying down through this.”
In the aftermath of the incident, pictures show the vehicle with a crumpled front end on the driver’s side, surrounded by debris, before police put up yellow crime tape.
The 37 year-old suspect, who had not been named nor formally charged by Monday, was taken into custody, according to the Dauphin County District Attorney.
It was not immediately clear whether anyone else was in the vehicle or whether the suspect was driving under the influence.
“The city is safe. These are random acts that sometimes are controllable and sometimes are not controllable,” Harrisburg Police Captain Akakpo-Martin told reporters.
Stores have closed their doors as police continue their investigation.
In a Facebook update, the Anna Rose Bakery and Coffee Shop on North 2nd Street said: “We will be closed tomorrow on Tuesday, September 2nd. Members of our staff directly witnessed the tragic accident that happened today at Kipona and need time to process everything.”
