Family, friends remember three lives lost at a Fulton County bus stop

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ROCHESTER, Ind. - The trial for the woman charged with hitting and killing three children and injuring another at a Fulton County bus stop is set for October 15. Friday, the family gathered to remember the lives of Mason, Alivia and Xzavier.

On October 30th, 2018 Alyssa Shepherd allegedly drove past the flashing red lights and extended school bus stop arm, hitting and killing three children and injuring another in Rochester.

On that day, Brittany Ingle lost 9-year-old Alivia Stahl and 6-year-old twin brothers Mason and Xzavier Ingle in an instant. 11-year-old Maverik Lowe was also severely injured.

“It’s a pain nobody should ever have to go through and what happened to my family was just horrific and I can’t even describe to you the pain of losing three kids,” Brittany Ingle said.

On October 15th, 2019, that driver is set to be in court in Fulton county. But some family members say officials chose the smaller courtroom to try and privatize a public trial.

“By assigning this case to a courtroom where you only have 32 people able to be seated really kind of make you question why we’re in such a small courtroom in such a high-profile case. We are limiting the media and limiting if not restricting the public access to it,” Michael Schwab, the children’s grandfather said.

He said he just wants everything to be fair and the public to be able to hear about the case.

“We’ve had a lot of people contact us saying hey what’s going on, we should have the right to be able to have access to this trial,” Schwab said.

ABC57 reached out to the prosecutor and the judge who were both out of the office Friday. Another courthouse representative did say that the courthouse has two courtrooms and the trial is going to be held in the smaller superior courtroom, which seats 30 to 35 people.

Schwab said the family has tried not to think about the trial because the pain is still so real.

“The fact that we have to kind of relive this all over again with the trial definitely brings up a lot of emotions,” he said.

A remembrance service was held Friday night in Rochester to honor the lives lost last year and remember the good that has happened with the new max strong school bus safety laws passed statewide.

“The law isn’t going to bring my kids back but just to know that I’ve saving other kid's lives possibly, means a lot to me,” Ingle said.


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