An Arizona mother has been arrested and charged with multiple counts after she allegedly threatened a group of children she believed had thrown wood chips at her children and then chased them in her pickup truck, running over a 12-year-old girl’s ankle.
Brandie Gotch, 30, was booked into jail on six counts of endangerment, four counts of aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weaponm and one count of attempted first-degree murder, KTVK reported.
Court documents say that Gotch drove to WestGreen Park in Peoria and walked over to a group of kids, grabbing a 14-year-old boy by the hair. She allegedly shook his head back and forth while yelling at him, and then grabbed a sharp stick out of her truck, chasing after him while yelling that she was going to kill him and “run you over.”
Then, the documents say, she got back into her truck and drove toward a group of 15 kids in the park, driving over the park’s rock landscape and hitting the 12-year-old girl in the process. As the other children ran for their lives, she drove back to the parking lot and fled the scene.
Police said part of the incident was recording on a cell phone. Police tracked her down to her home and arrested her.
Gotch reportedly told detectives that she saw kids throwing wood chips at three of her children and also believe one of them punched her 10-year-old daughter. She said she confronted the group and that they called her b****, so she grabbed a boy and told him not to call her that. She admitted taking the sharp stick out of her truck and approaching another boy who called her a “fat b****,” but she denied threatening him.
She told police that she put her truck “aggressively into reverse, then in drive” before plowing through the park, but said she didn’t think she hit the girl. Later, however, she said, “I hope I didn’t.”
Gotch reportedly told investigators that her children had been bullied at school and she thought the situation had continued at the park, according to KTAR.
All four of Gotch’s children were in her truck as she drove through the park, and she told investigators she thought they were wearing seatbelts. The children told police “they were unrestrained and were bouncing all over the vehicle,” the probable cause statement says.
Gotch is being held on a $250,000 bond.
