Student arrested after vehicular assault
He was aiming for her father, a sheriff’s department detective said.
Published Sept. 28, 2010
Sheriff’s deputies arrested Columbia freshman Nicholas Lee on two assault charges after he ran over someone’s foot in northeast Columbia, a Boone County Sheriff’s Department news release stated.
According to the release, during the incident that led to Lee’s Sept. 22 arrest, Lee threatened to hit a Columbia resident with his car but ran over the man’s daughter's foot instead.
Lee, 18, was driving a Chevrolet Blazer on Limoges Drive when the incident took place. Detective Tom O’Sullivan of the Boone County Sherriff’s Department said a local resident was standing outside his home at the time and yelled at Lee to slow down.
“He (Lee) pulled into a driveway down the street and entered that residence,” O’Sullivan said. “Then he got back in the vehicle and drove toward the complainant’s house.”
The resident and his 17-year-old daughter were standing on the side of the road when Lee returned. According the release, the resident wanted to discuss Lee’s driving, but Lee swerved toward him, attempting to strike the resident.
O’Sullivan said Lee changed direction at the last second, striking the resident’s daughter instead. The resident called the police and Lee was arrested for third-degree assault and second-degree assault.
Lee was processed at the jail at about 11:30 p.m. and released on a $5,000 bond 20 minutes later.
O’Sullivan said the suspect was charged with both second-degree and third-degree assault because of the threatening nature of the driving.
“Third-degree assault can be anything from yelling to pushing or punching someone,” O’Sullivan said. “It’s putting someone in fear of his or her life, basically from trying to hit the complainant, that qualifies as third-degree assault.”
O’Sullivan said there’s no way to know how Lee will be punished.
“It’s hard to tell at this point,” he said. “We have a long way to go before anything happens.”