Woman killed in multi-vehicle crash with crime suspect fleeing Wichita police
A pregnant 22-year-old woman died Tuesday after her car was involved in a multi-vehicle collision that authorities say was caused by a crime suspect fleeing from Wichita police.
Samantha Lee Russell of Wichita died after the fleeing suspect’s vehicle hit her Mazda CX-3 as she was waiting to make a left-hand turn onto Central from southbound Ridge in late afternoon traffic, the Kansas Highway Patrol said in a crash report.
Wichita police told news media at the crash site Tuesday evening that the suspect, whom KHP identified as 37-year-old Javan Jermaine Ervin of Wichita, was trying to get away from law enforcement pursuing him in connection with another crime.
The KHP said in its report that Ervin “was actively attempting to elude” police and driving northbound on Ridge “at a high rate of speed” when he “failed to stop at the red traffic light at Central.”
Ervin’s Dodge Ram slammed into a Chevrolet Silverado truck that was westbound on Central, which “caused the driver side rear wheels & tires to detach from the vehicle,” the KHP report says.
The Dodge then hit two more vehicles that were waiting in the left turn lane — a Jeep Compass and Russell’s Mazda — before flipping onto its top and stopping in the northbound lanes of Ridge, according to the KHP report.
A news release issued by the Wichita Police Department on Wednesday afternoon echoes the highway patrol account but says that officers quickly called off the pursuit of Ervin “due to the high speed and traffic conditions.” The deadly crash happened afterward.
Police officers began chasing Ervin after he was seen leaving a hotel in the 7500 block of West Taft with a 34-year-old parolee suspected of robbing someone at gunpoint just before 5 p.m. Tuesday. Police, in the news release, said the robbery suspect, Jamie Chavez of Wichita, was caught and “taken into custody” near Maple and Ridge.
But Ervin drove off and sped away northbound on Ridge, police said.
Moments later, police say, he ignored a red traffic light and collided with three other vehicles including Russell’s.
Ervin ran away from the crash site but was captured and arrested “a short time later,” police said in the news release.
Russell, who was 33 weeks pregnant, was the only person killed in Tuesday’s wreck. A 73-year-old Wichita woman driving the Jeep Compass was taken to the hospital after complaining of pain but no one else was hurt, the KHP said.
Russell’s baby, a boy, was delivered prematurely and “is currently hospitalized in critical condition,” the police news release says.
Ervin was booked into the Sedgwick County Jail at 1:15 a.m. Wednesday, online booking records show. He is being held on suspicion of first-degree felony murder, aggravated battery and criminal possession of a firearm but had not been formally charged with any crime connected to the crash as of Wednesday morning.
The Wichita Police Department asked the Kansas Highway Patrol to help investigate the collision to “avoid any conflicts” of interest since it involved a suspect that had been pursued by police, according to the police department news release.
This story was originally published July 7, 2021 at 11:03 AM.
