Man walks away from Victory Drive wreck with hatchet in pants and leaves behind heroin, police say
A motorist who had heroin in his mother’s car ran a red light Friday and hit another vehicle, then got out and walked away with a hatchet stuffed in his waistband, a police officer testified Tuesday in Columbus Recorder’s Court.
Officer Tyler McCrea said he was traveling down Victory Drive at 12:46 p.m. when he saw two damaged vehicles stopped at Benning Drive and witnesses waving him down. They told him the driver of a 2016 Ford Escape involved the crash had got out and walked away, and a witness in a pickup truck was tracking the suspect, McCrea said.
McCrea drove on, eventually spotting the pickup truck near Shelby Street, where the driver pointing to a man later identified as 28-year-old Michael Anthony Williamson, the officer said.
Searching Williamson, McCrea found the suspect had a hatchet stuffed down into the back, right side of his waistband, and large knife stuffed down the opposite side, he said.
Witnesses told McCrea the Escape was headed east on Victory Drive and without slowing ran a red light and smashed into a car turning left onto Benning Drive, after which Williamson walked off.
McCrea said Williamson told him the crash happened as he reached to the floorboard of the Escape to pick up a pack of cigarettes.
Williamson made “erratic statements” that caused the officer to suspect he was impaired, McCrea said. Searching the Escape, police found plastic bags containing a brown substance they believed to be a gram of heroin worth $100, the officer said. He said they also found a digital scale and about a gram of marijuana.
Williamson, 28, was charged with possessing a controlled substance, possessing marijuana, possessing a drug-related object, having a weapon while committing a crime, leaving the scene of an accident, failing to exercise due care while driving, failing to show a driver’s license and failing to obey traffic controls.
This story was originally published July 31, 2018 at 5:02 PM.