A Hutchinson woman is dead after her vehicle is struck by a suspect fleeing police in an allegedly stolen vehicle.

 

 The accident occurred just after noon yesterday after Wichita Police noticed a van that had been reported stolen parked in a Walmart parking lot. Police requested the help of the Kansas Highway Patrol Air Division to help follow the vehicle after it managed to escape the parking lot. The van had two flat tires after running over police spike strips.

 

Police did not follow the vehicle in their cruisers, but the K-H-P tracked the van by air. The van eventually stopped and two suspects fled the vehicle on foot. The other suspect – identified as 24-year-old Katelyn Barrioz of Wichita – allegedly stole another vehicle and continued to flee. In the process, she struck another vehicle head-on. The driver of the other vehicle 43-year-old Mandy Buckwalter was pronounced dead at the scene.

 

Barrioz sustained minor injuries and was taken to Wesley Medical Center for treatment. Wichita Police say she will be arrested and taken to jail when she is released from the hospital.