A Little Rock city director crashed her convertible Tuesday afternoon when a man involved in a disturbance jumped in the vehicle as she drove past, authorities said.
It happened about 1:15 p.m. as Doris Wright, who represents Ward 6 in west-central Little Rock, drove by the intersection of 15th and Battery streets in a white Volkswagen convertible, Little Rock Police Department officer Michelle Hill said at the scene of the crash.
After the suspect jumped in near the sign for Centennial Park, Wright lost control and hit a pole, and the car then flipped, authorities said. She and the suspect were both being treated for unspecified injuries at a Little Rock hospital, and police were interviewing others believed to be involved in the disturbance.
Hill said it was not a targeted attack and that Wright just happened to be driving by north on Battery Street. The suspect, whose name had not been released Tuesday evening, took advantage of the fact that Wright was in a convertible, Hill added.
Jeanetta Blackman, who lives nearby, said she was sitting on her back steps when she heard two loud booms.
"I thought a plane had crashed on top of my house," she said. "It was that loud."
Blackman ran outside, where she saw the suspect lying in the street and Wright sitting nearby, she said. The suspect seemed to be in "bad shape," but Wright didn't appear to be badly hurt, Blackman said.
Blackman said a neighbor told her the man had been running in and out of traffic all day.
Wright responded to a text message Tuesday and didn't want to comment on the crash, but said that she wouldn't be attending the evening's National Night Out event in her neighborhood as planned.
"I have lots of bruising and my head hurts," she wrote.
City Manager Bruce Moore visited with Wright at the scene of the accident, a city spokesman said.
"At that time he said she was 'sore but OK.' He just visited with her again and reported that 'she's very thankful to God and in good spirits,'" spokesman Lamor Williams said just before 5 p.m. Tuesday.
National Night Out is an annual event where police officers and community members gather for a night of food and fellowship. Before the crash, Wright was expected to attend a National Night Out event at the West Central Community Center in her ward.
Larry Gilmore, the athletic director of the West Central Sports Complex and a friend of Wright's, said he called her right after the crash and she told him she had been in a bad accident. When he arrived at the scene, she was still seatbelted into her car and complained about the impact of the air bag and the glass in her shoe.
"It was really a blessing ... that she even survived," Gilmore said.
The Volkswagen flipped multiple times but its rollover protection system activated, he said.
"If not, it would have taken her head off," Gilmore said.
Information for this article was contributed by Chelsea Boozer and Ryan Tarinelli of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 10/04/2017