ROCHESTER, Ind. (AP) — A northern Indiana woman has entered a preliminary not guilty plea to charges that she struck and killed three children crossing a highway to board a school bus.
Twenty-four-year-old Alyssa Shepherd appeared Thursday morning for her initial hearing before a Fulton County judge. She’s charged with three counts of reckless homicide.
Authorities say Shepherd struck four children with her pickup truck Oct. 30 as they crossed a two-lane state highway to board a school bus near Rochester, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of Indianapolis.
She told authorities she didn’t realize the bus facing in the opposite direction had stopped.
Six-year-old twin brothers Xzavier and Mason Ingle, and their 9-year-old sister, Alivia Stahl, were killed. An 11-year-old boy was severely injured in the crash.
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But in another statement she said she saw the flashing lights but thought it was maybe a tractor. So now she knows it’s a bus but didn’t know it was stopped? Which is it? How about this, when you see flashing lights but aren’t sure what it is, SLOW DOWN AND FIND OUT. Don’t just keep driving at 55 mph and hope for the best.