The Oklahoma agency originally in pursuit called off the chase in minutes because of the grave danger to the public, while two different agencies later picked it back up.
—
VINITA, Okla. — Kim Guthrie-Harrel noticed police lights flashing from a cross street in the late morning hours while driving Route 66 near Foyil, Oklahoma.
“Highway rules,” Kim thought, as she began to slow and move over. Suddenly she saw a truck speeding over railroad tracks in front of the police lights and directly for her vehicle.
She reached to shield her 23-year-old daughter, Logan, from the passenger-side impact.
Airbags blasted out and glass showered.
Someone put Kim in a neck brace while she pleaded for them to help Logan, not herself.
“I knew at that time she was partially ejected out the backseat door,” Kim recalled. “She was still buckled in and everything, so the impact actually moved the seat.”
Logan Dawn Harrel, a vibrant and witty Army veteran and freshman college student, was dead. She was killed by a high-speed police chase over what was broadcast as a suicidal juvenile runaway in a stolen vehicle on Oct. 20 in Rogers County.
