A 33-year-old mother brought her teenage daughter with her to buy drugs and wound up leaving the scene of a crash with injuries, Winter Haven police said.
Stephanie Stinson told her 15-year-old daughter she wanted to buy marijuana. Stinson allegedly asked her daughter to set up the transaction, according to the local police department.
A 15-year-old boy identified as Austin Lopez suffered facial fractures and broken bones. First responders airlifted the boy to Arnold Palmer Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries around 1:37 a.m. Sunday.
The daughter had scheduled to meet up with someone she knew at a laundromat early Sunday morning near the intersection of 6th Street Northwest and Avenue H Northwest.
Stinson then paid $20 for a bag of marijuana and expected change in return. However, Lopez did not give her change. Instead, he went to the car that brought him to the location.
Stinson then attempted to block the vehicle from leaving when she didn’t get her change. Stinson rammed her blue Dodge Avenger into the vehicle, where the boy was getting inside on the passenger side.
The impact launched the boy over the hood of the vehicle where he landed on the roadway.
Police said that Stinson stopped briefly to pull off a piece of her vehicle that was dragging along on the road. “At that point, both she and her daughter saw Lopez injured in the road,” police said.
Stinson’s daughter then called 911. However, neither Stinson or her daughter stayed at the scene.
Winter Haven police were called to the scene of the hit and run at 1:30 a.m. Officers found 15-year-old Austin Lopez, lying injured on the road.
“He was with the group that was involved” in the drug deal, a police spokeswoman told local reporters.
Police said a piece of Stinson’s Avenger was lodged into the silver Chevrolet she struck. Police determined the ownership by the VIN number marked on the vehicle part.
Stinson’s estranged husband called police around 7:06 a.m. Sunday to report his vehicle with damage. Stephanie Stinson sent him a text message saying she had struck a vehicle and a person.
Stinson is charged with leaving the scene of a crash and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Source: New York Post, ABC News