An Upper Arlington woman faces several felony charges after police allege she carjacked a vehicle and drove the wrong way on State Route 315 for several miles before crashing into another vehicle, killing an assistant city prosecutor and seriously injuring another.
A grand jury indicted Xiaoke Fan, 30, with involuntary manslaughter, aggravated vehicular assault, aggravated vehicular homicide, aggravated robbery, robbery and theft, according to Franklin County Common Pleas Court filings. A warrant was attached to the indictment and as of mid-afternoon June 6 did not appear to be in custody, according to jail logs.
The fatal crash happened sometime after 10 p.m. May 4 on State Route 315. Kaitlyn Spahr, 30, an assistant prosecutor with the Columbus City Attorney’s Office, was a passenger in the other vehicle Fan crashed into and was killed in the crash. Soogie Choi, an environmental attorney at the City Attorney’s Office, was driving the vehicle and was seriously injured.
Spahr, Choi and Fan were taken in critical condition to Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, where Spahr died at 10:51 p.m.
According to charging documents, the owner of a stolen 2018 Mercedes-Benz told police that she picked up Fan at East North Broadway and North High streets after Fan asked the woman for help and said she needed police. The vehicle’s owner told police she knew officers were at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, so she drove Fan there, according to court documents. At the hospital, records state, the victim reported that Fan took a large rock out of her pocket and threatened to hit the vehicle’s owner with it and kill her.
The woman owner got out of her 2018 Mercedes-Benz, and police alleged in the affidavit that Fan drove off, getting onto State Route 315 the wrong way. At 10:11 p.m., she crashed head-on into another 2018 Mercedes Benz driven by Choi with Spahr as a passenger, prosecutors alleged.
ODOT video shows Fan narrowly avoiding multiple vehicles before fatal, head-on crash
Video captured by Ohio Department of Transportation cameras shows Fan getting onto Route 315 North the wrong way, traveling south on the Ackerman Road exit ramp. As she enters the highway, she narrowly misses a vehicle exiting Route 315 and at least two vehicles traveling north whose drivers take evasive action.
Fan darts over to the far left northbound lane and shoulder and continues south, the video shows. A few moments later, a car traveling in the left lane swerves to the right side of the road at the last moment to avoid hitting Fan.
Fan continues driving south on the northbound median shoulder of Route 315 for several minutes. At 10:06 p.m., Fan is seen continuing south on the northbound median shoulder near Lane Avenue as an ODOT work crew with a large yellow arrow sign directs traffic from the right two northbound lanes into a single lane in the far left northbound passing lane.
Fan continues driving south on the northbound median shoulder, passing vehicles moving over into the left northbound lane for the work crew and traveling to King Avenue.
The remaining video provided by ODOT does not show the fatal crash itself. According to Columbus police, Fan drove around 3 miles in the wrong direction before the head-on collision.
Reporter Shahid Meighan can be reached at smeighan@dispatch.com, ShahidMeighan on X and shahidthereporter.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Upper Arlington woman indicted in fatal wrong-way collision on SR 315
Reporting by Shahid Meighan, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Shahid Meighan, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
