A woman who drove through barricades and crashed into a crowd on Monday at Harrisburg’s Kipona festival asked bystanders for directions just moments before.
Chanda Porter-Lewis was standing on the street corner with her aunt when the woman police identified as Elizabeth Bohrer, 37, of York Haven, stopped near them in a red minivan.
Bohrer asked where “87″ was.
“I don’t know what she was saying. It was so weird,” Porter-Lewis said. “She just kept saying, ‘Where is 87?’”
An absolutely terrifying scene along a closed Front St. in Harrisburg. A car barreled down the road during the Kipona Festival and injured a child and a woman in a wheelchair. @allieberube and I were here when it happened pic.twitter.com/Nfx1FnB0b0
— Sarah Willson (@SarahRWillson) September 1, 2025
Then, Bohrer sped off, did a u-turn at a traffic light, and eventually drove on a sidewalk near Forster Street and came speeding through Front Street into a crowd of people.
“I mean, it was ‘boom’ right through the barrier,” Porter-Lewis said. “It seemed like she was on something, we didn’t know what, but she was belligerent when she was stopped and she was obviously confused.”
Porter-Lewis said a group of children had just been in the area enjoying the Kipona activities. She was grateful that many of them had cleared out before the crash.
“That was a sad ending to a nice event,” Porter-Lewis said. “I had so much fun, and for it to end like that… It’s just sad.”
Three people were injured in the crash, a 6-year-old boy, a 25-year-old woman in a wheelchair and a man who works for Harrisburg’s public works department.
The public works employee has severe swelling of his arm and shoulder and must go back to the hospital in a few days when swelling subsides for another assessment, City Spokesperson Mischelle Moyer said. The hospital believes the arm is fractured.
The city said it will not be release the worker’s name and he will not speak with the media.
“The victims and their families, our workers, and the city are very traumatized over this event, which was out of everyone’s control but the drivers,” Moyer said. “We had the proper safety measures, barriers, and personnel in place. The woman should not have been operating a motor vehicle—period. It was the heroics of our workers that actually brought her to a stop or it would have been much worse.”
Witnesses at the Kipona Festival in Harrisburg said multiple people were injured after being hit by a car. A woman was detained after the crash.
READ MORE: https://t.co/YBxJ0mvMqj#breaking #news #localnews #harrisburg #kipona #festival #tragedy #crash #investigation pic.twitter.com/dLeTOD2KkX— CBS 21 News (@CBS21NEWS) September 1, 2025
City officials will not speak further on the incident unless it is to update the victims’ conditions, Moyer said. The 6-year-old boy is in critical condition after he suffered a fractured jaw, ribs and pelvis. The 25-year-old woman is in fair condition, according to Penn State Health Holy Spirit Medical Center.
Bohrer was charged on multiple accounts of aggravated assault by vehicle, including aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI.
She was unable to post $350,000 bail and is being held at Dauphin County Prison.
