BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Bloomington Police arrested a Scottsburg woman late Wednesday for striking two pedestrians with her vehicle during a Monday evening demonstration in downtown Bloomington.
Christi J. Bennett, 66, was booked into the Monroe County Jail overnight on three preliminary charges:
- Criminal recklessness, level 6 felony (two counts)
- Leaving the scene of an accident resulting in serious bodily Injury, level 6 felony
- Leaving the scene of an accident resulting in bodily injury, class A misdemeanor.
Police determined that Bennett was driving the red Toyota captured in video that shows two people hanging on the hood as the car drove along North Walnut Street between Fourth Street and Sixth Street in Bloomington around 9:30 p.m.
The Toyota approached an electric scooter that was in the street and a man got out and threw it out of the way. That's when 29-year-old Chaz Mottinger approached the Toyota and stood in front of it with her hands on the hood of the car.
The video shows the car accelerate, causing Mottinger to go up onto the hood of the car. A man then grabbed the car and clung to its side as sped north on Walnut Street. Mottinger and the man stayed on the car until it turned east on Sixth Street and they fell off.
The 35-year-old man suffered abrasions to his arms as a result of falling from the vehicle. Mottinger sustained a cut to her head and was taken to the hospital for treatment.
She told 13News she had a concussion and needed two staples to treat the cut on her head.
"I wanted to stop other people from getting hurt," Mottinger said. "I didn't think another human would try to run me over."
Several people provided investigators with with cellphone video of the incident, including the license plate of the car.
On Wednesday, July 9, investigators determined that the registered owner of the car was staying at a motel in Scottsburg, Indiana. There they found Bennett and the man who tossed the scooter and detained them.
The man, who was not identified by Bloomington Police, was interviewed and released.
Bennett was taken to Bloomington to be interviewed by detectives. She and her lawyer declined to provide a statement, so she was arrested and taken to jail.
Her car has been impounded to for evidence.