Days after fatal Kansas City car wreck, police identify deceased driver, passengers
Kansas City police have identified three people who died in a fatal wreck last week after a stolen Kia SUV crashed into another SUV while allegedly fleeing a traffic stop.
Monday, police identified the deceased as Donelle Morris, 16; Reginald K. Smith, 37; and Myesha S. Gentry, 32.
Morris was driving the car, a blue Kia Soul van, at the time of the crash, according to Capt. Jake Becchina, a spokesperson for the Kansas City Police Department. Smith was sitting in the front passenger seat, while Gentry was sitting in the left second row seat behind Morris.
The crash took place shortly after 5 p.m. on August 13, at East 35th Street and Norton Avenue, according to Becchina.
A Kansas City police officer had stopped the Kia Soul — which Becchina said was a stolen vehicle, taken on August 2 — half a mile up the road at East 31st Street and Cleveland Avenue.
When the officer got out of his car, Morris allegedly drove away at high speeds down 35th Street, Becchina said. The officer did not follow, he said. Eight people were in the car as it sped away from the attempted traffic stop in the Palestine East neighborhood of Kansas City.
A Chevrolet Tahoe was in front of the Kia Soul as it fled, Becchina said. When the Kia swerved into the westbound lanes to pass the Tahoe, driving in the wrong direction, the Tahoe was turning left, leading the cars to collide.
The force of the crash spun the Tahoe around but flipped the Kia onto its roof, Becchina said, causing it to hit a large wooden utility pole. Morris and Smith were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, and Gentry was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a local hospital.
Six other people were injured in the crash, including four children in the Kia and the driver of the Chevrolet Tahoe. The children ranged in age from four to 13, with the four-year-old sitting on the lap of a 20-year-old passenger and the older children found in the rear cargo area without seats.
Their reported injuries were serious but not life-threatening, Becchina said.
