Students from the University of Delaware killed, several injured when the driver flees from the police, hits people near the campus

A graduate student from the University of Delaware was killed and several other people were injured when a U-Haul truck fled the police and collided with people near the campus, authorities said.

“This is an unpleasant, meaningless and intolerable crime … which was completely and totally avoidable,” said Delaware Attorney Kathy Jennings, at a press conference on Wednesday.

On Tuesday afternoon, the officers in a shopping center parking saw an empty U-Haul truck that had been reported on Monday “as an unauthorized use vehicle” after it was rented but did not return when it won last month, Newark police said.

About 45 minutes later, Gordon Turner, 22, and a passenger returned to the truck. When the officers moved to arrest them, Turner led on a sidewalk, hit a marked police car and moved away in the street, according to the police.

“Newark police officers did not start a search,” police said in a statement. “All officers remained within the mall and did not follow Turner.”

Meanwhile, Turner supposedly accelerated on Main Street, lost control of the truck and hit two pedestrians, police said.

His van supposedly hit several parked cars that had five people inside, police said, and those collisions caused a chain reaction in which a parked car was pushed to another pedestrian.

The U-Haul then rested in front of a post office, police said.

According to the Police, one of the pedestrians, a graduate student from the 24 -year -old University, died in the place, according to the police.

The second pedestrian, also a graduate student from the 24 -year -old University, suffered serious injuries and is in the hospital in stable condition on Wednesday, police said.

Three other victims were taken to hospitals with injuries that do not endanger life and several people were treated in the place by minor injuries, police said.

The officers responded to the disabled U-Haul and arrested Turner and the passenger, police said.

“A student was killed during an attempt to evade a simple traffic stop by the police. These students were not in the wrong place at the wrong time: there were nine young people on a beautiful spring day,” Jennings said at the press conference. “Due to the cruel and selfish decision of a person, due to the election of the accused of not obeying police officers, nine of those young people were injured. One of those young people will never go home.”

The charges against Turner include: second degree murder: death caused during the commission of a serious crime; Second degree murder: reckless behavior that shows indifference to human life; And first -degree assault: conduct creating risk of death or serious injuries, police said.

“There will certainly be other positions,” Jennings said.

Turner is also a fugitive wanted in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Maryland, police said.

Turner’s passenger has not been accused, police said.

“This is a terrible tragedy,” said the president of the University, Dennis Assanis, and Vice President of Student Life José-Luis Riera in a letter to the University. “We talk throughout the university by offering our condolences to the families, friends and classmates of the victims, and we keep the other members of our community in our thoughts that may have witnessed the accident and its sequelae.”

“The security of our entire community remains our top priority, and we will continue working with our partners in the city government and the State to address security concerns around and on the UD campus,” they added.