Name released for man arrested for reckless driving

By Harvey County Now Staff

Newton Police identified Bryant White, 20, of Wichita as the man accused of injuring another motorist in a crash and driving 67 miles an hour higher than the speed in downtown Newton on Tuesday.

Newton Police Lt. Scott Powell said an officer was running radar from the Dock 44 parking lot on Meridian on Tuesday afternoon when he clocked a vehicle going 67 miles per hour in a 30-mile-per-hour zone.

“By the time the officer got turned around, the guy turned on Broadway, and he was passing the fire station,” Powell said.

The officer followed but called off any pursuit, with the vehicle too far ahead and going too fast to safely follow. The city release from Tuesday said the vehicle was clocked at speeds of 87 miles per hour.

Powell said an officer at the police station got in his vehicle to respond, and by the time he reached Broadway, the speeding vehicle had crashed into another vehicle on Magnolia Street, injuring the vehicle’s occupant.

Powell said he wouldn’t characterize the incident as a vehicle chase, as police were always far enough back that it was unlikely the driver knew he was being pursued.

“We were never really behind him,” Powell said.

The suspect’s vehicle eventually came to rest at the tennis courts in Roosevelt Park, where he was arrested after a brief foot pursuit.

White was booked into the Harvey County Jail on Tuesday on pending charges of distribution of narcotics, possession of stolen property, possession of narcotics, reckless driving and leaving the scene of an injury accident. He also had misdemeanor charges of reckless driving, driving without a license, possession of paraphernalia, and criminal possession of a firearm.

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