Driver who killed three children crossing to board their school bus says she had an 'out of body experience' just before hitting them
A woman from Indiana, who slammed into four children with her pickup truck, killing three and critically injuring the other, has been convicted of three counts of reckless homicide. Alyssa Shepherd reportedly slammed into the children while they were crossing the street to get on their school bus.
A Fulton County jury found the 24-year-old guilty of felony count of criminal recklessness and a misdemeanor count of causing injury by passing a school bus with the safety arm extended. Shepherd struck and killed 6-year-old twins Xzavier and Mason Ingle, their sister 9-year-old Alivia Stahl and critically injured 11-year-old Maverik Lowe, according to reports.
Shephard, while recounting the tragedy at the Fulton County Courthouse, said: "The only way I can describe it is an out-of-body experience. I was a mess." When her attorney asked her to recall the moment she ran into the four children, she said that her emotions ranged from disbelief to hysterical.
The woman claimed that she didn't initially recognize the school bus across the street from the victims' mobile homes in Rochester or the warning sign extended from the bus' side. Authorities, during her probable cause hearing, said that Shephard claimed to not connect the pieces until it was too late for her to stop her vehicle, according to the Daily Mail.
Indiana State Police Detective Michelle Jumper said: "She did not recognize it immediately as a school bus. In fact, she said she was trying to figure out what it was. She knows she dimmed her lights for it because it had headlights, but she couldn’t make out what it was. By the time she realized what it was, the kids were right there in front of her."
Fulton County Prosecutor Michael Marris, in his concluding arguments, said that the bus stop had been there in place for 50 years and there had never been a fatality before this accident. "The thing that makes me sick here is that this never should have happened," Marrs said.
Shephard could reportedly face up to 21 and a half years in prison. Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for December 18.