A Truck Drove Into a Youth Soccer Game in Wichita. A 6-Year-Old Is Gone. Pray for McPherson.
A 6-year-old boy and a 35-year-old man from McPherson were killed when a pickup drove through a youth soccer game in Wichita. The driver is in custody.
It was supposed to be an ordinary Saturday afternoon in Kansas: kids in shin guards, parents in folding chairs, a youth soccer game on a fall day.
Shortly before 3:30 p.m., a pickup truck drove onto a field at the Stryker Sports Complex in Wichita and into a crowd on the sideline. A 6-year-old boy and a 35-year-old man were killed. Both were from McPherson, Kansas, and were not related to each other, NBC News reported.
Eleven other people were taken to hospitals, 10 of them with traumatic injuries. Police said all were expected to survive, The Wichita Eagle reported. The injured included two 5-year-olds, two 8-year-old boys and a 9-year-old girl, along with adults from 28 to 68.
What police know, and what they don't
The driver, a 34-year-old woman from Garden City, Kansas, was taken into custody. Police said she stayed with the truck and has been cooperative. Two children were in the truck with her, and police believe one of her own children had a game at the complex that day on a different field, ABC News reported.
Police have not said whether the crash was intentional. "We know what happened, but now we're working very hard to find out why it happened, and we're not there yet," Wichita Police Chief Joe Sullivan said. Investigators have interviewed more than 30 witnesses and asked anyone with video to share it.
That is where the facts stand, and it is where a responsible account should stop. Speculation about motive helps no one. The families deserve the truth, and the investigators deserve time to find it.
The game on that field was between a Wichita team of 10- and 11-year-old boys and a team from McPherson, according to the FC Atlas Wichita youth soccer club. The truck went into people on the McPherson sideline, the Eagle reported. "We were just playing, and then I saw a black truck just ran over all those people," said 10-year-old Isaac Rutiaga, who was in the game.
Neighbors who ran toward the injured
In the worst moment, ordinary people did what was right. When officers arrived, they found bystanders already caring for the wounded. "Life-saving assistance was given before first responders arrived," Sullivan said. "It was amazing."
That is what love of neighbor looks like when there is no time to think. Jesus told of a Samaritan who saw a wounded stranger, "had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds" (Luke 10:33-34). On a soccer field in Wichita, parents and strangers did the same.
"Today is a heartbreaking day for Wichita," Mayor Lily Wu said. "Families came to Stryker Sports Complex to enjoy a Saturday afternoon watching their children play soccer. No one could have imagined the tragedy that would unfold," CBS News reported.
A town at prayer
In McPherson, St. Joseph Catholic Church opened its doors for prayer Saturday evening. The McPherson Police Department urged residents to "lean on one another, care for one another, and remember that no one has to face this alone," KWCH reported.
A family in McPherson woke up Sunday without their little boy. Another family lost a man who was just 35. There are no words big enough for that, and Christians should not pretend there are.
What Scripture offers is not an explanation but a presence. "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart" (Psalm 34:18). Jesus, who took little children in his arms and blessed them (Mark 10:16), also wept at the grave of a friend (John 11:35). He does not stand at a distance from grief like this.
This has been a hard week for American families. Just days ago, Christians were called to weep with those who weep after children and a teacher were killed in Bend, Oregon. Now the call comes again, this time from Kansas.
Pray for the families in McPherson. Pray for the injured children and adults, for the boys who saw it happen, and for the first responders and bystanders who will carry these images for a long time. Pray, too, that the investigation brings out the truth and that justice, whatever it requires, is done rightly.
