A 19-year-old Little Rock man who reportedly jumped into Little Rock City Director Doris Wright's convertible before it crashed Tuesday will face a charge of aggravated assault, authorities said.
Police said the suspect, Brakell Howard, first entered a different vehicle in the same area around West 15th and South Battery streets. He slapped a 27-year-old woman in that car across the face before she and another person in the car removed him and told him to leave them alone, according to a Little Rock Police Department report.
Officers said Howard then ran north on South Battery Street and jumped into Wright's convertible Volkswagen Beetle.
Witnesses told police the man grabbed Wright's car door and started yelling at Wright to stop. Wright then swerved and lost control of the car, hitting a tree and throwing the man into the street. The car overturned about three times and came to rest upright in a yard on Battery Street, the witnesses said. Officers reportedly found Howard lying near the wreckage.
Howard and Wright were transported to Baptist Health Medical Center, the report said. City spokesman Lamor Williams said Wright was "bruised and sore but moving on."
The man will face charges of aggravated assault and third-degree battery, Little Rock Police Department spokesman Lt. Steve McClanahan said. It was unclear whether he was still in the hospital, but Pulaski County jail officials said Wednesday he had not been booked there.
Metro on 10/06/2017