Man hits five cars, flees scene

LJWorld.com weblogs The Lawrence Crime Blotter

Posted by Eric Weslander September 7, 2006 at 2:28 p.m.

Today's crime briefing:¢Five vehicles hit: A driver struck five vehicles near the Kansas University campus early this morning and nearly collided with a sixth before being arrested for DUI and leaving the scene of an accident. According to a report, witnesses called police about 1:05 a.m. after seeing a Jeep strike five other vehicles in the 1600 block of Edgehill Road and leave the scene. As officers were trying to find the driver, someone called KU Police to report that a vehicle nearly hit someone head-on in the 1600 block of West 15th Street. The person who was nearly hit followed the suspect's vehicle to the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house, 1602 W. 15th St., where officers found the vehicle and identified its owner as Jared Lee Hodgson, 19, Lawrence, a resident of the house. He was booked into jail and released on $1,000 bond to appear in court Sept. 20.¢Social-Security scam: A woman told Lawrence Police her 75-year-old mother received a suspicious phone call Wednesday evening in which a man said he was authorized by the Social Security Administration to increase her monthly payment by $25. He asked for the woman's bank, date of birth, and Social Security Number, but she refused to give it to him. Police said the case is a reminder not to divulge personal information to strangers. ¢Sex crime:The parents of an 11-year-old Oskaloosa girl reported that 24-year-old Lawrence man inappropriately touched their daughter between June 1 and Aug. 31 at a home in south Lawrence. It was reported Tuesday. Police have interviewed the man and sent a report to Dist. Atty. Charles Branson's office for review.¢ Drug arrest: 34-year-old Chester W. Brockman Jr. of Lawrence was booked into jail Wednesday night after being arrested by Lawrence Police for possession with intent to sell narcotics, possession of drug paraphernalia, obstruction, and failure to have a drug-tax stamp.¢Restraining-order violation: A 27-year-old Lawrence woman told police her boyfriend violated a restraining order by getting into the passenger seat of her van Tuesday. The woman flagged down officer Anthony Brixius about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 1100 block of West Sixth Street and told him about the passenger, who then fled on foot and was caught in the 600 block of Missouri Street. The man, 22-year-old William Donovan Mitchell, previously had been arrested Aug. 20 for breaking into an apartment in the 600 block of Michigan Street, threatening the same woman and battering her. ¢Chinese-food robbery: A driver for Peking Taste restaurant, 2210 Iowa St., told police he was robbed at gunpoint Tuesday night after being called to deliver food to a vacant duplex in the 2500 block of Ousdahl Rd. The man said that when he drove to the duplex and saw it was vacant, he got back in his car, then heard a voice, turned and saw a man pointing what appeared to be a handgun at him. Another person-- he thinks it was a male -- opened a rear door and took $85.47 worth of Chinese food from the vehicle. The driver drove back to the store and reported the theft.¢Pit bull kills cat: A pit bull chased a cat into a home Saturday morning in the 1500 block of Delaware Street and attacked it, according to a police report. A woman at the home tried to break up the chase but couldn't, and the cat, Zelda, didn't survive. Police took the dog into custody without incident and brought it to the Lawrence Humane Society. As of today, police still are trying to determine who owns the dog.-contributed by [Eric Weslander.][1] [1]: http://www2.ljworld.com/staff/eric_weslander

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n8n2010 6 years, 8 months ago

BAN PITBULLS AND PHI KAPPS!!!

Confrontation 6 years, 8 months ago

Check out Chester on the KDOC website. He's got quite the history, including "improper use of food" while in prison.

compmd 6 years, 8 months ago

Proud day for Phi Psi and its brothers.

00jester 6 years, 8 months ago

"Police took the dog into custody without incident"

Ah, that is awesome.

doc1 6 years, 8 months ago

Brockman is a loser and always will be. Just put him down with the pit bull

Tychoman 6 years, 8 months ago

Stupid frat boys thinking they can get away with crap.

Stupid dog for brutally killing that cat. Poor Zelda I feel for her owner.

Pywacket 6 years, 8 months ago

Marion, I certainly see your point. But, this world being far from perfect, any solution imposed by those called upon to impose solutions is going to be less than perfect. And sometimes the solution will be to kill the individual dog that has not been bred or trained so as to dim its ancestral instincts. I quite realize that all failings are on the part of humans, not the dogs. But living with imperfect humans has been, over the centuries, an immeasurable boon to dogdom. Sometimes a wayward individual dog, who cannot live by the accepted rules of species cohabitation, must take a hit for the rest of dogkind.

Most dogs living among us do NOT kill cats when given the chance--even if they have not been raised with them. Most also do not kill infants, or other dogs, or chickens or sheep that enter their territory, much less kill those that do NOT enter their territory. What do we do with those that do?

Granted, it is not the individual dog's "fault" if it kills through predation, as the dog in today's news did, or possibly through play, as an Airedale did (I think in the Wichita area?) some years back. That dog was a loved family pet. It grabbed the new baby from the crib by its head and tossed it around the room. It died. They surmised that the dog "thought" the infant was a new toy for him. It is tragic that these individual dogs did not receive the well-rounded socialization and training that might have prevented those very different attacks. But since they didn't... and the fatal attacks did occur... what is society going to do?

I think we anthropomorphize too much when we lament the euthanization of an animal that has eagerly killed either another domestic animal or a human. It is not "cruel" to the animal to euthanize it. It does not know of or dread its impending death. It does not leave children or grandchildren to mourn its passing and ponder what good it might have done in the world had it been rehabilitated instead. Weighed against the anguish of the humans involved--those whose pet or child was shredded--how important is it, really, that the dog's life be spared?

In a perfect world? Maybe there would be the money and resources to place the animal in intensive training--to socialize it properly--to overcome its instincts with behavioral modification. But, again, this is not a perfect world. Sometimes the only logical solution that society can afford is the one that may give the human victims (the cat's owners..the child's parents..) the greatest feeling of comfort and security--the euthanization of the animal that destroyed their beloved pet or child.