09/07/2021
A pregnant Kansas woman was killed when a fleeing robbery suspect slammed into her vehicle, but her baby miraculously survived.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2002 Dodge Ram driven by Javan Jermaine Ervin, 37, Wichita, was actively attempting to elude law enforcement following a robbery.
Samantha Russell, who was 33 weeks pregnant, was waiting at a stop light in Wichita at around 5 p.m. when the pickup truck ran through the red light and hit her vehicle, as well as two others.
EMS transported the 22-year-old expecting mother to Wesley Medical Center where she was pronounced dead. But her baby, a boy named Mac, was delivered in the in the immediate aftermath of the crash.
The grieving dad said that Samantha “was going to be a fantastic mother.”
“Sammy was taken from us but left behind the most beautiful gift of life,” he wrote on Facebook Wednesday, sharing a heartbreaking photo of himself cradling his son.
Police said the alleged driver, 37-year-old Javan Ervin, is in custody.
Police took Ervin into custody on requested charges of aggravated battery, first degree murder in the commission of a felony and criminal possession of a firearm,.
Ervin was suspected of robbing a hotel when he took off in his Dodge pickup, cops said. No one else was killed in the crash.
He was charged with first-degree murder in commission of a felony, aggravated battery and criminal possession of a firearm.