TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — A Terre Haute man is behind bars after police say he purposefully struck a person with a bus he was driving before fleeing the scene.
The incident reportedly left the victim in extreme pain and unable to walk without assistance from a walker.
According to court documents, Keith E. Ketner, 64, of the 1800 block of 8th Street, had been harassing a pair of men for two to three months before the events of May 24, when he reportedly turned his bus into a man on purpose, striking, and injuring him before driving away.
“[Victim] informed Affiant that Keith Ketner has harassed and yelled at [Friend] and him between 25 and 40 times. [Victim] detailed the statements from Keith as him saying he doesn’t want them in the neighborhood, doesn’t want them in the town, and doesn’t want them going to any stores in the neighborhood.”
Probable Cause Affidavit filed in Vigo County Court
Police said the incident occurred at the corner of 7th and Hulman Streets in Terre Haute. According to a witness to the incident, Ketner drove a short blue and white bus into a parking lot near the intersection and began yelling at the two men. The victim told police he could see Ketner was shouting, but due to having his windows closed couldn’t hear what he was saying. As the victim approached the bus, a witness told police that Ketner turned his steering wheel toward the man and began to accelerate, sideswiping the man and leaving him laying in the street as the bus drove away.
“He took off with the bus as fast as possible, and then he swerved it. He went to leave when [Victim] was talking to him,” the witness told police. “[Victim] was trying to talk to him, and he swerved the bus purposely and hit [Victim] on the shoulder” which knocked [Victim] to the ground. Keith then fled the scene of the accident.”
Probable Cause Affidavit filed in Vigo County Court
A worker at a local business in the area told police that on May 17 he saw Ketner yelling and screaming at the victim and his friend near the same intersection “He heard Keith saying that this was his town, this was his country, and that [Victim] and [Friend] are a ‘menace’,” the document reads.
The witness would say he had seen Ketner harassing the two men on at least 10 occasions, where Ketner would pull up in one of his many buses and sit and yell at the two men.
In June, police spoke with another person who works at a business near the intersection who that said on May 22, Ketner stopped his bus to threaten him. “[Person] stated that Keith Ketner told him he was going to ‘hunt them down’ and ‘bring out his pink lady’ (referring to Ketner’s .38 special), ‘tonight was the night they would meet their maker’,” the document reads.
A search of Vigo County Jail records shows Ketner has been arrested and processed four times since April of 2023. An unrelated May arrest allowed police to confirm that his vehicle was the same one seen in security camera footage near the intersection on the day of the incident.
Vigo County Court records show that during an initial hearing on Tuesday, Ketner was appointed a public defender in the case, and ordered to undergo an evaluation of his mental health status. Vigo County Judge Charles D. Johnson set Ketner’s bond at $50,000 with no 10% allowed.
Ketner is scheduled for a review hearing on August 18 at 9 a.m., with a jury trial tentatively scheduled for October 16.
