Main: Jeffrey Jay Atkinson being arrested for an alleged hit-and-run involving a young girl (Dayton Police). Inset: The intersection where the victim was found (Google Maps).
Newly-released footage from police body cameras shows officers arresting a 55-year-old man in Ohio accused of severely injuring a 9-year-old girl, allegedly striking her with his Hummer SUV as she was biking over a crosswalk and then dragging her for several blocks before he fled the scene. The child survived the ordeal, but authorities said she suffered “extensive trauma,” including the lower portion of her left leg being “missing below the knee” when police first arrived.
Jeffrey Jay Atkinson was taken into custody last month and charged with two counts of vehicular assault, as well as one count each of child endangering, failure to stop after an accident, and operating a vehicle while impaired.
According to a news release from the Dayton County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, an officer with the Dayton Police Department on the night of July 22 was flagged down by a citizen who reported witnessing a vehicle driving on Keowee Street that was “dragging a girl under it.”
Within minutes, police said they were flooded with 911 calls reporting the same incident, including the girl’s mother, who told the emergency dispatcher that her daughter was riding her bike when she was struck by a vehicle and “became caught in the wheels.”
“The vehicle, a Hummer, kept going, dragging her daughter with it,” the release states. “The mother didn’t know where her daughter was.
The Hummer Atkinson was allegedly driving (Dayton Police).
The officer located the victim and called medics to the intersection of Wayne Avenue and Clover Street, which is about 200 miles southwest of Cleveland, Ohio.
“Officers on scene with the girl administered tourniquets to the girl’s legs, as they both had extensive trauma — the lower portion of her left leg, including her foot, was missing below the knee, and her right leg had significant injury as well,” prosecutors wrote.
One of the individuals who called 911 told the dispatcher that he had witnessed the incident and was following the driver. The suspect’s vehicle was quickly located at the Cowboy Lido Bike Stop Bar in the 4000 block of Springfield Street, about 3.5 miles from where the victim was located.
The suspected driver — later identified as Atkinson — came out of the establishment and immediately identified by multiple witnesses. When police attempted to perform a field sobriety test, Atkinson admitted he was “too drunk to pass,” prosecutors said.
Atkinson exiting a bar after the alleged hit-and-run (Dayton Police).
The bodycam footage, reviewed by Law&Crime, shows Atkinson walking out of the bar with his hands up as police ask him if he is the owner of the Hummer parked in the lot. He’s wearing a black T-shirt shirt depicting a skeleton pointing a handgun and a slogan that reads “Support Your Local Outlaws.”
Atkinson being arrested (Dayton Police).
“Yes,” he responds, as he walks toward the officers appearing off balance and at one point to grabs the back of a chair to maintain his balance.
A bystander can be heard saying, “I hope you go to jail for a long time, buddy.” Another yells that Atkinson’s “judgment day is coming.”
Atkinson appears to say, “I’m sorry,” and the bystanders respond by yelling profanities at him for hurting a child and not stopping.
When police tell Atkinson they are going to perform a series of tests to see if he’s impaired, Atkinson says there’s no point in doing that.
“Oh f— that, I’m already impaired,” he responds. “I already know that,” he adds.
Atkinson agrees to do the tests, but also offers an ironic explanation for why he might perform poorly.
“No, wait. Before I do this, I got in a serious motorcycle accident. I got hit head-on by a drunk driver and I’ve got metal all the way up my leg,” he says pointing to his left leg. “I’ve got metal in this (right) leg. I’ve got metal in this (left) arm.”
The footage skips forward and Atkinson tells the officer that he “can’t focus” before declaring, “You know what? F— it, I’m drunk. I’ll admit it. I own a bar”
Police then put him in the back of a police car and transported him to the Montgomery County Jail where he is being held on $500,000 bond.
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