Woman accused of killing Indiana kids with truck didn’t know it was school bus, she says

After police say Alyssa Shepherd ran into four children at an Indiana bus stop with her pickup truck — killing three siblings — the woman allegedly told officers that she didn’t realize the lights on the road were from a school bus stop until she couldn’t stop.

Authorities revealed information about the fatal crash Wednesday during a court hearing in Rochester, Fulton County, according to Fox59. The crash took the lives of 6-year-old twins Xzavier and Mason Ingle and 9-year-old sister Alivia Stahl, who died shielding them.

A fourth child, identified as 11-year-old Maverik Lowe, who is not related to the other children, was airlifted to a nearby hospital for broken bones.

A GoFundMe page for Lowe says he was thrown 30 feet in the crash, and that he “may never walk again.”

“He suffered broken ribs, busted knee cap, fractures in his arm and wrist,” it reads. “His leg is in pins and rods holding it together. He had plastic surgery already to put his face back together. He has slipped disks in his spine by his neck. He is a very, very strong kid.”

Shepherd was arrested at 4 p.m. Tuesday at a church she worked at, police say, according to Fox59. She was charged with a misdemeanor charge of passing a school bus causing injury and three felony counts of reckless homicide, the outlet reported.

During the Wednesday court hearing, Indiana State Police Detective Michelle Jumper recounted what she had heard from witnesses and those involved in the crash, according to RTV6.

Shepherd explained that she had three children in her car — including her little brother — and she had just dropped her husband off at work, which she usually does not do, Jumper said, according to RTV6. The suspect said she saw lights on the road, Jumper said in court, but by the time she realized they were from a stopped school bus it was too late.

“By the time she realized that it was a school bus, the kids were right in front of her,” Jumper recounted from Shepherd, RTV6 reported.

The bus driver explained that he told the kids to cross the street because he was sure Shepherd would stop her pickup truck after he turned on the stop lights, Jumper said in court, according to RTV6. A person driving behind Shepherd said they saw headlights from Shepherd’s car “illuminate the kids.”

Shepherd was released on $15,000 bail Tuesday night, according to ABC News. She stayed on scene after the crash, police say.

Elgin Ingle — uncle to the three children, who were pronounced dead on the scene — said the loss has been hard for his brother, according to Fox59.

“He didn’t lose one kid, he lost all of his kids,” Ingle told Fox59. “What do you tell your little brother, how do you tell your little brother it’s gonna get better? You can’t.”

Ingle argued that this tragedy might have been preventable, WNDU16 reported, as there have long been concerns about the bus stop’s proximity to a busy road.

“This school has been warned, this has been an issue, we have said this before,” Ingle said, according to WNDU16. “They’ve made complaints, other parents. It’s not safe to walk a child across a highway, especially at that time because everyone’s going to work at that time.”

The day of the crash, Tony Slocum said it’s rare to see authorities crying at a crime scene — but it happened.

“I haven’t seen first responders and troopers cry in a long time,” Slocum, a sergeant with the Indiana State Police, told ABC7. “When the children’s father had to make identification of his children, that was just gut-wrenching. We saw tears today and our hearts just go out to them because most of us have children and we can’t imagine the pain that he felt today.”

This story was originally published November 1, 2018 at 9:14 AM with the headline "Woman accused of killing Indiana kids with truck didn’t know it was school bus, she says."