INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -
An Indiana woman was arrested in a hit-and-run crash that sent one woman to
the hospital and caused minor injuries to a man during a southern Indiana
protest over the assault of a Black man by a group of white men, sheriff’s
officials said Thursday.
Christi Bennett,
66, of Scottsburg, was booked into the Monroe County Jail early Thursday on
preliminary charges of criminal recklessness and leaving the scene of an
accident, Deputy Barry Grooms said. She was released a couple of hours later
on $500 cash bond.
Authorities expect
prosecutors to file formal charges later, and Bennett is scheduled to appear
in court on July 17. Bennett could not immediately be reached for comment.
The confrontation
happened near the Monroe County Courthouse in Bloomington, about 50 miles
southwest of Indianapolis, on Monday evening.
A 29-year-old woman
was injured when a car accelerated into her, launching her onto the hood,
police said. A 35-year-old man then grabbed the driver’s side of the car and
held on as the vehicle continued to accelerate. Both were eventually flung
to the ground and the car fled the scene, they said.
The woman was
knocked unconscious and suffered a cut to her head, while the man scraped
his arm.
Bloomington Police
Department investigators determined Wednesday that Bennett, the woman the
car was registered to, was staying at a motel in Scottsburg, Capt. Ryan
Pedigo said in a news release.
Investigators found
her exiting a motel room and took her to Bloomington to be interviewed, he
said.
She and her lawyer
declined to provide a statement to investigators, according to Pedigo.
The protesters had
gathered in Bloomington on Monday to demand arrests in an assault on Vauhxx
Booker, a civil rights activist and member of the Monroe County Human Rights
Commission, by a group of white men at Monroe Lake near Bloomington over the
Fourth of July weekend.
Booker said the men
pinned him against a tree, shouted racial slurs and one of them threatened
to “get a noose.”
The FBI has said
it’s investigating the reported assault.