Three people, including a 6-year-old boy, remain hospitalized after a woman drove her car through a crowd at a Labor Day festival in Pennsylvania, according to officials.
The driver was identified on Tuesday as Elizabeth Bohrer, Fox 43 reported. She’s facing a slew of charges — including three counts of aggravated assault by vehicle, aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI, among others — in connection with the crash at the Kipona Festival in Harrisburg.
According to Harrisburg Bureau of Police Captain Atah Akakpo-Martin, Boher’s minivan came through one of the barricaded areas around 6 p.m. on Monday, the third and final day of the annual event, held to celebrate the region’s Native American heritage. Akakpo-Martin said the vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed at the time and that it only came to a stop after hitting multiple objects and driving across several blocks through the festival.
Three people — a 6-year-old boy, a woman in a wheelchair and a man in the city’s traffic engineering department — were also struck in the chaos. Both of the adults were listed as stable as of Tuesday while the boy remained in critical condition.
Their names have not been released.
Harrisburg mayor Wanda Williams said the public works employee was hurt trying to protect other festival-goers.
“My heart, my prayers, and the prayers of our entire city are with the victims and their families,” she said in a statement. “We are profoundly grateful that their injuries, though serious, were not fatal. We will stand by them as they heal and ask God to remain vigilant over the little boy desperately fighting for his life.”
Boher was taken into custody on the scene, police said. And while authorities do not believe she intentionally drove through the festival, she did show signs of impairment at the scene, according to the criminal complaint.
The arresting officers noted the suspect appeared “out of it” and gave “verbal and visual indicators” indicating she was under the influence. During a subsequent interview a the hospital, where she had her blood drawn, Boher alleged kept falling asleep and talking about “random things.”
