Pizza delivery driver arrested in Muncie hit-and-run
MUNCIE, Ind. (WISH) — Muncie police have arrested a Pizza Hut delivery driver in a hit-and-run crash that injured a 14-year-old girl Saturday.
Officers said they arrested Devon Stephen Gaines, 23, on Sunday evening after a plea for information led to a tip from the manager of a Pizza Hut.
The accident happened around 10:15 p.m. near West McGalliard Road and West Morrison Road, a few blocks northwest of Ball State University. Police Chief Joseph Winkle said the 14-year-old girl was trying to cross West McGalliard from the south side with two other teenage girls when she was hit and thrown into the median. She was seriously injured and taken to a nearby hospital, then flown to IU Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis for surgery. Chief Winkle said the driver fled the scene.
“There’s never an excuse for that,” Winkle said. “14 years old? How do you leave that scene?”
Investigators quickly determined from witness statements and a crash recreation scenario that the vehicle was a Dodge Magnum, possibly red. Winkle says when they published that information, a tip came in.
“A tip came in of the suspected driver and vehicle. They were able to go the location, located the vehicle, matched it to the damage it would have been,” Winkle explained. “Without the tip I’d like to think we would have eventually solved it but certainly it might have taken it longer than it did.”
Many tips police officers receive are under strict confidentiality, and the identity of the tipster is not revealed. According the probable cause affidavit, in this case, the tipster identified herself as the manager of Pizza Hut and explained she noticed damage to the front end of the Dodge vehicle of her employee, Gaines.
“This is just an example of what can happen when people actually get involved and make those phone calls. Sometimes we don’t get that kind of cooperation,” Winkle said. “We obviously always need it but this is a situation that worked out real well for us.”
Gaines, 23, was charged with leaving the scene resulting in serious bodily injury, a level 6 felony. He posted $5,000 bail Monday morning and WISH-TV saw him in the Muncie Police Department later that afternoon giving a statement to detectives. Detectives say Gaines told them they have the wrong person and his Dodge vehicle was damaged in another way.
The police chief said if anyone in Muncie has information about a criminal investigation they are encouraged to call Muncie’s Crime Stoppers hotline at 765-286-4050. He said tipsters can also call the chief’s office directly at 765-747-4822 or contact Muncie Police Dispatch at 765-747-4838.
“Anytime you have information about a crime, there are several places you can call and leave that message and we’ll get it followed up,” Winkle said.
This incident follows another hit-and-run accident nine days earlier in Kokomo that resulted in the death of a 10-year-old girl. Kokomo police also indicated that knowledgeable tipsters coming forward helped them make an arrest in that case.
