2 dead, 1 in critical condition after being hit by car at bus stop
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Two men are dead while one other is in critical condition after a car hit an IndyGo bus stop shelter they were in on the near north side.
Authorities said that 61-year-old Marvin Kinchlow died as a result of the crash that happened at 29th and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street around 3:30 a.m Sunday morning.
The driver, who was heading southbound on MLK, according to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, told police that another driver ran a red light and forced him off the road and into the bus stop shelter.
A few hours later, family members confirmed to 24-Hour News 8 that a second victim, 59-year-old Eugene Guzman, died at the hospital. Guzman’s cousin Minister Kenneth Scott visited the intersection Sunday afternoon to see the crash scene and console neighbors who knew the victims.
“I’m filled with grief for the two lives that have been cut short as well as for the people in this neighborhood who have lost a loved one, a friend,” he said. “We just don’t know from day to another, one second to another, how quickly life can be snapped from us.”
Scott said Guzman and Kinchlow both attended the feeding ministry at Barnes United Methodist Church. At the ministry, participants receive food as well as prayer. “The food is one thing that we serve them but I believe that wanting to hear the word was a part of it,” he said.
Scott then stood over the bus shelter and began saying a prayer. Within a few minutes, neighbor Sandra Wright joined him. At first she didn’t know people died as a result of the accident, but felt compelled stand alongside Scott.
“I’ve lived in the neighborhood for 57 years and I never visioned what I see today,” she said as she looked at the crash scene. “As the minister was saying, you don’t know how you’re gonna leave here, you don’t know when you’re gonna leave here, but you got to be ready before you leave.”
IMPD says that driver is cooperating and they say they have ruled out alcohol as a factor in the crash.
All of the victims are in their late 50s and early 60s. Two of the men were taken to IU Health Methodist Hospital, while Kinchlow was taken to Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital, where he would later succumb to his injuries.