Pedestrians hit in Target lot identified

Police have identified the driver and the pedestrian victims in a Thursday accident in the Lawrence Target parking lot.

Police said Sheila Morgan, 50, of Lawrence, was driving a white 2005 Jeep when she struck Gary Benjamin, 72, of Garnett, and Marlys Hayden, 68, of Garnett, shortly after noon Thursday in the parking lot of the store in the 3200 block of Iowa Street.

Sgt. Trent McKinley, a Lawrence Police Department spokesman, said both suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries.

On Friday afternoon, a Lawrence Memorial Hospital spokeswoman said Hayden’s condition had improved and a spokeswoman at Overland Park Regional Medical Center said Benjamin remained in serious, but stable, condition and appeared to be “on the road to improvement.”

McKinley said that as Benjamin and Hayden crossed from the store’s exit doors to the parking lot, Morgan made a left turn from an isle and struck the two.

No citations or arrests have been made and police continue to investigate, McKinley said.