USA: 44yo Woman Drove Her SUV Off The Road, Through A Field Straight Into A Large Building Used As An After-School Center In Chatham, Illinois. She Killed 4 Students Ages 7, 7, 8 And 18. Injured 6.

🚨NO WHITE SUPREMACISTS INVOLVED🚨

🚨NO ISLAMIC JIHADISTS INVOLVED🚨

NBC News published April 29, 2025: 4 students killed after woman drives car through after-school center. Police identified the driver that ran her vehicle into an after-school center in Illinois as 44-year-old Marianne Akers. The investigation is ongoing and she is not in police custody. NBC News’ Maggie Vespa reports three elementary school students and an 18-year-old high school senior were killed in the crash.

KMOV St. Louis published April 28, 2025: 4 students dead after car crashes into after-school program building in Illinois. Four people have died after a car crashed into an after-school program building in Chatham, Illinois.

CBS Chicago published April 29, 2025: Vigil held for girls killed when car hit after-school camp in Chatham, Illinois. As the crowds swelled one day after the unimaginable loss, neighbors comforted each other. Sara Machi reports.

NBC News

Police doubt crash that killed 4 girls at Illinois after-school camp was a 'targeted attack'

written by Dennis Romero

Tuesday April 29, 2025

The deaths of three children and an adult teenager when a vehicle veered off an Illinois roadway and into an after-school camp were most likely not the result of a targeted attack, police said Tuesday.

Illinois State Police investigating the tragedy in the village of Chatham said the driver was not in custody as detectives await the results of toxicology tests.

“The cause of the crash remains under investigation, but this does not appear to be a targeted attack,” state police said in a statement Tuesday.

The driver and sole occupant of the vehicle was identified as Marianne Akers, 44, of Chatham, who was hospitalized "for evaluation" but otherwise uninjured, the state police statement said. It wasn't clear whether she has been released.

Akers was a food services employee who last worked at the Ball-Chatham School District in November 2022, the district said.

The victims were identified as Rylee Britton, 18; Ainsley Johnson, 8; Alma Buhnerkempe, 7; and Kathryn Corley, 7, all pronounced dead at the scene, Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon said in a statement Tuesday.

Ball-Chatham schools said all four were district students.

"In times like these it is important that we lean on one another for strength and support," the district said in a statement.

Six other children were injured and hospitalized, one in critical condition, state police said.

A Hospital Sisters Health System spokesperson indicated that all six were taken to St. John's Hospital before one was treated and released and that the five others were transferred to St. John's Children's Hospital, a pediatric trauma center.

Jamie Loftus, founder of YNOT Outdoors Summer Camp & After School, said in a statement Tuesday that the collision was an "unforetold tragedy."

Loftus said the camp's security video captured the crash: A large, speeding SUV struck the YNOT building’s east wall around 3:20 p.m. and exited to the west before it came to a stop against a utility pole.

"It travelled through a 78-acre farm field, arcing into a path that security cameras observed, showed it heading to our building at a high rate of speed," Loftus said. "With no apparent attempt to alter its direction, the vehicle crossed North Breckenridge and the sidewalk, continuing into our parking lot and into the East wall of our building."

Jamie and Mitzi Loftus, residents of nearby Springfield, founded the camp in 2002 to help keep children active and stimulate their minds during the summer, according to its website.

Saying families of the victims "are hurting very, very badly," Jamie Loftus asked people to keep them in mind but "give them space and respect."

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Associated Press

Illinois town mourns the 4 youngsters killed when a car barreled through their after-school camp

written by John O'Connor

Tuesday April 29, 2025

CHATHAM, Illinois — Residents of a small central Illinois city on Tuesday mourned the loss of three children and a teenager killed in a startling crash in which a car barreled through a building used for a popular after-school camp. Authorities said it didn’t appear to be a targeted attack.

The car on Monday left a road, crossed a field and smashed into the side of the building in Chatham used by Youth Needing Other Things Outdoors, also known as YNOT, according to Illinois State Police. It traveled through the building, striking people before exiting the other side. Six children were also hospitalized, including one left in critical condition.

The Sangamon County coroner identified those killed as 18-year-old Rylee Britton of Springfield and three Chatham children: Ainsley Johnson, 8, and Kathryn Corley and Alma Buhnerkempe, both 7.