Husband says pregnant wife killed by fleeing driver would have been ‘fantastic mother’
Facebook posts from Samantha Russell and her husband, Brandon, show a life filled with love and promise.
The young couple, married within the past few years, were preparing for their next big journey.
She was a Realtor and creator of custom handstamped jewelry that she sold online. He is in the Air Force.
They had recently purchased a house. And their careers seemed to be taking off, with Samantha successfully selling a number of local properties to happy new homeowners.
Earlier this year, Samantha and Brandon joyfully announced the newest addition to their little family:
A baby boy to be born on Aug. 13, 2021.
Above snapshots of them holding sonogram photos that she posted on Facebook Jan. 16, Samantha wrote, “newest adventure” next to an icon of a white heart.
“She was the best example of what it looks like to be happy,” her husband said.
But in a tragic turn of events that local authorities say was caused by a suspect fleeing from Wichita police, the 22-year-old expectant mother was killed Tuesday in a multiple-vehicle crash at a busy Wichita intersection as she waited to make a left hand turn in late afternoon traffic.
The collision, at Central and Ridge, came a little more than a month before the baby’s due date. Samantha Russell was 33 weeks pregnant, Wichita police said Wednesday.
But thankfully for the family, the baby boy survived and was delivered in the aftermath of the impact.
The child, named Mac, is healthy, his father confirmed.
He was born at 5:33 p.m. Tuesday — about 35 minutes after the time the authorities gave for the crash that stole his mother’s life.
In a Facebook message Wednesday morning, Brandon Russell told The Eagle that he was not granting interviews at this time. But he referred a reporter to a Facebook post where he spoke about Samantha and her hopes for their future.
His message, a bittersweet mix of grieving husband and joyful father, described Samantha as “driven” and the “hardest worker I knew” and the “best person to know” who “ALWAYS knew what to say when I was going through an issue or needed advice.”
“Sammy was taken from us but left behind the most beautiful gift of life,” Brandon Russell wrote in the post.
She “was going to be a fantastic mother. She always had everything planned out and ready to go,” he said.
“From her bubbly attitude and being all over the place to her knowing when it was couch-thirty and time to watch Netflix. She was an all around good person who did not deserve to die on impact from a reckless driver.”
She died around 7 p.m. at Wesley Medical Center, where she was transported after her Mazda CX-3 was hit, according to a Kansas Highway Patrol crash report.
Wichita police told media at the crash site Tuesday evening that the man who allegedly caused the deadly wreck, identified as 37-year-old Javan Jermaine Ervin of Wichita, was trying to get away from a law enforcement officer who had pursued him in connection with another crime. He is currently being held in the Sedgwick County Jail on suspicion of first-degree felony murder and other counts over the deadly wreck, booking records show.
According to the highway patrol report, Ervin was speeding along northbound Ridge Road in a Dodge Ram “actively attempting to elude” authorities when he ran a red traffic light at the Central and Ridge intersection.
Samantha Russell’s Mazda CX-3 was the last of three vehicles Ervin’s truck hit.
She was the only person killed.
This story was originally published July 7, 2021 at 2:28 PM.
