Officers responded to a call around 1:50 a.m. Sunday at the intersection of Walnut and 12th Street in Bloomington that a vehicle had struck a man on a scooter.
(Devan Ridgway, WTIU/WFIU News)
The driver of the vehicle, 22-year-old Madelyn Howard, was charged with leaving the scene of an accident and causing death while operating a vehicle while intoxicated upon her arrest. A reckless homicide charge was added sometime between her arrest and Wednesday morning.
She told police she didn’t remember hitting anyone, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in court Wednesday. The document says she gave various accounts of how her car’s windshield was broken, including finally saying she “probably hit something.”
Video from a security camera at a nearby restaurant shows a car driving partially on the sidewalk along Walnut Street where Stratton was hit. The document says it showed a pedestrian jump out of the way and a single shoe bouncing on the sidewalk as the car drove away.
According to the probable cause document written by BPD Officer Katherine Tiernan and filed in court Wednesday, the incident began about 1:50 a.m. Sunday.
Tiernan was called to 12th and Walnut Street to investigate an accident in which a person was hit by a car. Police also reported they were looking for a dark-colored car, possibly a black Mercedes.
IUPD found a car matching the description at 19th and Lincoln Street. The driver, Howard, and a male passenger, were at the scene. Tiernan said the car had heavy damage to the passenger side windshield and side window.
According to the document, Howard told police she left Kilroy’s Sports bar to take her passenger home because he thought he was too drunk to drive. At first she refused to acknowledge being involved in an accident. She failed three sobriety tests and was taken to IU Health Bloomington Hospital for a blood draw.
Later while in custody, she told a detective she didn’t know when the windshield got damaged. When asked what occurred between leaving the bar and encountering police she said she didn’t remember the accident, or hitting anyone, or running off the road. When asked why she turned off of Walnut Street onto 17th Street, Howard said she “probably hit something.”
The male passenger told authorities that while riding home, he felt glass from the windshield and/or passenger window hit him. He asked Howard “did you hit someone,” to which she replied, “I think I hit somebody,” according to the affidavit.
After she pulled over about eight blocks from where Stratton was hit, witnesses told her and Mccullough “you got a scooter under you.” Several people then assisted in getting the scooter out from underneath the vehicle. That’s when IUPD officers arrived.
Howard was released from custody on bail. Her hearing has been postponed to Friday, Sept. 30.
Stratton was transported to IU Bloomington Hospital, where he died about 6 a.m. from his injuries.
