photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

A Lawrence Police Department patrol vehicle is pictured June 28, 2022.

A driver was arrested Friday evening after allegedly crashing into a car at a Lawrence restaurant, attempting to flee and then striking one of the car’s passengers with his car.

The initial incident occurred just before 7 p.m. in the parking lot of Domino’s Pizza at 1008 W. 23rd St.

Lawrence Police spokeswoman Laura McCabe said evidence indicated that the man who was involved and arrested in the incident was driving erratically and hit a stopped car that was waiting to exit a parking lot. The man then tried to take off, but when the two occupants of the car got out to stop him from leaving, he circled around the lot and then hit a passenger and took off eastbound on 23rd Street, McCabe told the Journal-World.

Officers caught up with him within minutes and also discovered evidence of alcohol impairment, she said. Officers arrested the man near 23rd Street and Haskell Avenue.

Medics treated the woman who was hit at the scene and also took her to the hospital by ambulance, but “she was expected to be OK,” McCabe said.

Douglas County arrest records indicate that the suspect, Francis Warren Byington, 40, of Lawrence, was taken into custody on suspicion of aggravated battery, DUI, reckless driving and failure to stop at an accident. Byington was still in custody Sunday afternoon.