1 dead, 2 hurt after vehicle hits pedestrians outside Kansas City, Kansas, Walmart
One person was killed and two others hospitalized with critical injuries after a driver struck two pedestrians outside the Kansas City, Kansas, Walmart in the Plaza at the Speedway shopping center Thursday afternoon.
Police were dispatched about 2:35 p.m. to the 10800 block of Parallel Parkway after receiving reports of the crash, said Nancy Chartrand, a Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department spokeswoman. Three people, including the driver, were taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.
One of the pedestrians died after arriving at the hospital, Chartrand said. Investigators believe the crash was accidental, Chartrand said, and possibly stemmed from a medical emergency suffered by the driver.
SAFETY ALERT - We are asking the public to avoid the area of 108th and Parallel as KCKPD and emergency vehicles are on scene at Wal-Mart responding to a vehicle into the building.
— Kansas City, Kansas Police Department (@KCKPDChief) December 2, 2021
The department issued an alert at 3:15 p.m. asking the public to avoid the area of 108th Street and Parallel Parkway as emergency vehicles were on the scene. In the alert, the department said a vehicle had struck the building.
Police maintained a presence at the scene of the crash into the evening hours. Crime scene tape blocked off a large section of the parking lot at one of the main entrances to the building.
The vehicle, a black GMC Yukon, appeared to have driven over a brick and cement planter that runs along the storefront before crashing through a large window on the building’s east side, roughly 100 feet away from the entryway.
Business at the store went on as usual. One Walmart employee told The Star as she was leaving work for the day that she and other workers inside the store only became aware of the crash after being approached by concerned customers.
In a statement, a Walmart spokesman said the company offered its sympathies to those involved and referred questions about the incident to local law enforcement. The company also declined to share surveillance video of the crash.
Around 5:30 p.m., a crane truck and a flatbed tow truck arrived on scene to remove the vehicle. The crane lifted the SUV from the planter and held it midair as the tow truck backed underneath and hauled it away shortly after. Police officers still on scene then began removing crime scene tape, which was tied to several shopping carts around the parking lot, as they cleared the scene.
The Star’s Mattie Gellman contributed to this story.
