Posted on June 7, 2019

Utah Driver, 19, Says He Intentionally Hit Girl, 11, ‘Because She Was White’

Chauncey Alcorn, Daily Mail, June 3, 2019

A Utah man was arrested Friday morning after hitting an 11-year-old girl with his car before telling her ‘we all die sometime,’ according to a police.

Authorities said Steven Ray Becky, 19, later confessed to police and a witness that he intentionally hit the child, ‘because she was white.’

He was charged with attempted criminal homicide and DUI with serious bodily injury over the weekend, according to multiple local media sources.

Police said Becky was driving his Volkswagen Jetta north on the wrong side of Winged Bluff Lane in Draper, Utah, around 8.30am on Friday when he struck the unnamed girl who was ‘pushing’ an electric scooter south in the street.

Becky’s front bumper hit the girl before the entire sedan flipped over and landed on its roof near the sidewalk in front of a neighbor’s yard.

Witnesses told investigators Becky exited his vehicle and ‘charged’ at the girl as she lay in the road before saying ‘We all die sometime,’ to her, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

Becky also told a witness he was high on marijuana and Xanax at the time of the incident, police said.

The 19-year-old tried to flee the scene on foot, but a bystander tackled him and held him down until emergency responders arrived.

Both Becky and his victim were taken to a local hospital after the incident.

Becky was said to be in ‘good’ condition.

Steven Ray Becky

A doctor who treated the 19-year-old suspect said he told medical staff he was high on LSD and had eaten psychedelic mushrooms.

Police emphasized that the collision didn’t appear to be an accident.

‘This is not what I would describe as veered into the gal or drifted into the gal. My description would be turned into the gal,’ Draper Police Chief John Eining said during a Friday press conference.

Eining said Becky was staying with a family member whose child is friends with the victim, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

The 11-year-old girl was in serious condition when she was taken to a Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City on Friday.

She was wearing a helmet when Becky’s car hit her ‘straight on,’ according to Eining.

‘It’s very remarkable that the girl is in such good shape, very very fortunate,’ Eining said. ‘We believe [the helmet] probably has something to do with the condition she’s in now.’

Becky was still being held at Utah County Jail in Spanish Fork, Utah on $225,000 bond Monday morning.