Charges filed in crash that killed 3 Manchester students

FAIRMOUNT, Ind. (AP) - A prosecutor filed homicide charges Monday against a Chicago man in connection with a weekend crash that killed three international students at Manchester University and critically injured a fourth.

Grant County Prosecutor James Luttrull Jr. charged 26-year-old Deangelo Evans with three counts each of reckless homicide and operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing death, and one count of OWI resulting in serious bodily injury.

Evans was held on a $300,000 bond. It was not clear when he would make an initial court appearance or if he has an attorney who might comment on his behalf.

The crash Sunday morning along Interstate 69 near Fairmount, about 45 miles northeast of Indianapolis, killed Brook Dagnew and Kirubel Alemayehu Hailu of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Nerad Grace Mangai of Jos, Nigeria. Israel Solomon Tamire, also of Addis Ababa, remained in critical condition Monday at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne.

Some of Tamire's relatives have joined him at the hospital, Manchester said in a news release.

The students plus three others who were not injured had gone to Ball State University in Muncie and Taylor University in Upland and were returning to Manchester's campus in North Manchester, about 35 miles west of Fort Wayne, when their van had a flat tire. They were outside the vehicle partially off the roadway toward the median while the tire was being changed.

Luttrell said some members of the public had called in reports of an impaired driver on the highway.

Manchester is a private liberal arts school affiliated with the Church of the Brethren and enrolls about 1,500 students. The university said it had established a temporary fund to help offset travel and other expenses for the families of the victims. It said contributions could be sent to university president's office.