Passenger killed in Wichita crash during deputy pursuit; driver arrested for alleged murder

A Wellington woman is dead after the man she was riding with crashed his car in a utility pole while fleeing from law enforcement.

The chase lasted “less than a minute,” Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Nathan Gibbs said by email.

Lindsey Garmon, 38, died after she was taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries she received after Harry J. Rediker slammed the Hyundai Elantra he was driving into the pole. The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office said Rediker, 22, of Wichita, refused to pull over when deputies tried to stop him for several traffic infractions at about 5:22 a.m. Saturday in the 5700 block of West Kellogg Drive in west Wichita, near Kellogg and Hoover.

Deputies pursued Rediker when he “allegedly failed to stop and fled,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Monday.

Rediker’s car “left the roadway” for unknown reasons at Hoover and Taft, where it slammed into the pole, “ending the pursuit,” the release says. The intersection is just north of where the pursuit began.

Garmon, a passenger in the Elantra, was initially hospitalized with serious injuries but died “a few hours after the incident,” Lt. Nathan Gibbs, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office, said by email. Rediker had minor injuries.

The incident, including the reason Rediker crashed, “is currently under investigation,” according to Gibbs and the news release.

A daily accident bulletin from the Sheriff’s Office says Rediker told law enforcement when he went off the road, he hit a curb and went airborne “into a utility power pole, catching the vehicle on fire.” That bulletin says Garmon died at 8:25 a.m. at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis hospital.

Rediker was arrested and booked into the Sedgwick County Jail on suspicion of first-degree felony murder, interference with law enforcement tied to obstructing service of a felony warrant, fleeing from or eluding law enforcement and a state parole violation, according to the news release. Kansas Department of Corrections online records show Rediker was paroled to Sedgwick County in late December and absconded within 10 days.

His felony convictions include criminal possession of a weapon, theft and fleeing or eluding law enforcement in 2019, according to the KDOC records.

Rediker is being held in the jail on $250,000 bond.