WESTFIELD – A Connecticut man has been held without right to bail due to a February incident in which he allegedly stole cash from a Southwick resident and then drove over him with his pickup truck.
Southwick police officer Rhett Bannish reports, in a document filed in Westfield District Court, that he and officer Thomas Krutka were dispatched to a Point Grove address on the evening of Feb. 22, 2013, in response to a caller who reported that a pedestrian had been run over by a truck.
Bannish reports that he found the victim who was visibly upset and bleeding.
The man said that he had received a phone call from a friend, Daniel J. Carter, 21, of 28 Meadowbrook Lane, North Granby, Conn., who had asked to borrow $20.
The victim said that he agreed to lend his friend the money and Carter arrived at his home a short time later and parked facing the wrong direction on Point Grove Road so that the driver’s side of the pickup truck was near the verge of the roadway.
The victim said that he walked to the truck and removed money, $140, from his wallet.
The victim said that Carter grabbed the whole wad of cash.
He told Bannish that he grabbed the door of the truck and tried to reach inside to retrieve his money as Carter started to drive away with him hanging on to the side of the truck.
He said that he yelled at Carter to stop but, after the truck had moved 15-20 feet, he was knocked to the ground and fell.
On the ground, the victim said, the rear wheel of the pickup truck drove over him as Carter drove away.
Bannish reports that police in Suffield and Granby police were alerted to be on the lookout for the truck and the victim was transported to Noble Hospital and he subsequently learned that the victim “had a fractured/broken pelvis in addition to numerous bruises and abrasions.”
The officer also learned that Carter was the subject of two non-extraditable default warrants issued by Westfield District Court and enlisted the assistance of Connecticut police to find the suspect.
Granby police reported that they found the truck at the home of Carter’s grandparents but Carter fled out the back door of the house when police arrived.
One of the passengers in the truck confirmed that they had been in Southwick where Carter had been involved in an altercation with a man and “had started to drive with this male hanging off the driver’s door.” She said that the man fell from the door “and might have been run over by the left rear tire.”
Granby police were not able to find Carter.
The next day, Bannish reports, Carter called the Southwick police and agreed to go to the station for an interview but did not do so.
Later in the day, Simsbury, Conn., police requested assistance locating Carter who “had allegedly taken numerous pills with the intention of killing himself.”
When found by a Granby police officer, Carter reportedly said that “he had run over his friend with his truck yesterday.”
He was transported to a Connecticut hospital.
On March 1, Bannish filed a request for a warrant charging Carter with crimes including assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and unarmed robbery.
A search of a Connecticut judicial website shows that Daniel James Carter appeared in an Enfield court March 14 and was found guilty of five charges including larceny, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. He was sentenced to terms of 90 days and seven months.
Carter appeared in Westfield District Court July 31 and was arraigned before Judge Philip A. Contant on charges of unarmed robbery, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, reckless operation of a motor vehicle, leaving the scene of a personal injury accident and a marked lanes violation.
He was held without right to bail pending an Aug. 29 hearing.
