GREELEY, Kan. — Two teenage basketball gamers, a coach and a coach from the Tulsa, Oklahoma, space who have been on their method again from a match have been amongst eight individuals killed in a fiery head-on freeway crash in jap Kansas.
Authorities stated the opposite victims in Sunday’s crash on a two-lane stretch of US 169 about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, included three members of a St. Louis-area household. The crash occurred when a southbound SUV pushed by the coach, carrying the teammates, collided with a northbound sedan with the St. Louis household as passengers, the Kansas Freeway Patrol reported.
A 3rd teenager from the Tulsa space survived the crash and was hospitalized with what the Freeway Patrol described as probably a minor harm.
The younger basketball gamers who died have been Donald “DJ” Laster, 14, a scholar at Booker T. Washington Excessive College in Tulsa; and Kyrin Schumpert, a ninth-grader on the Union Excessive College Freshman Academy within the Tulsa space, who additionally typically glided by Kyrin Gilstrap, based on Union Public Faculties.
The boys have been members of the Oklahoma Chaos youth basketball program, which known as the crash “an unimaginable tragedy” in a publish on the social platform X.
“Please wrap their families and friends with love and support as they try to get through this very difficult time,” the publish stated. “Our organization has taken a tremendous hit and we are deeply saddened.”
Ron Horton, a instructor at Booker T. Washington, stated in a video despatched by Tulsa Public Faculties that he has seen a number of youngsters come and go in his 17 years of educating and that DJ Laster was “something special.”
He stated Laster was a quintessential student-athlete who labored as laborious at teachers as he did at sport in the course of the busy varsity basketball season. He stated Laster was amongst solely two freshmen to make the college’s varsity workforce and stood out for a way he put others comfy.
“It’s just a shock, it is, that he’s gone,” Horton stated.
Two adults touring with them additionally died — Wayne Partitions, of Talala, Oklahoma, 41, a former instructor and coach at Carver Center College in Tulsa — and Ja’mon Gilstrap, a coach and driver with the Tulsa Public Faculties’ transportation workforce. The survivor was Braden Partitions, 15, additionally of Talala, Oklahoma. Gilstrap was driving the SUV on the time of the accident.
The opposite driver — Alexander Ernst, 37, of Ames, Iowa — additionally died, together with Madalyn Elliott, 33; John Elliott, 76, and Norleen Elliott, 69, all of Chesterfield, Missouri.
The Kansas Freeway Patrol stated the crash occurred a couple of miles outdoors of Greeley, Kansas, a city of fewer than 300 individuals, at about 5:45 p.m. Sunday, as Gilstrap, the motive force of the SUV, tried to cross a slow-moving automobile. He and the sedan pushed by Ernst have been headed towards one another within the northbound lane, and each drivers swerved to keep away from a collision, however each went into the northbound shoulder of the freeway.
The crash induced a fireplace, and “both cars burned up,” officers stated.
