BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — A 20-year-old Indiana University student was killed Sunday in Bloomington after police say a woman, who has since been arrested for possible drunk driving, hit him while he was riding an electric scooter.
Officers were called around 2 a.m. for a crash investigation at the intersection of N. Walnut and E. 12th streets. There, bystanders described a car involved in the crash quickly fleeing north on Walnut, the Bloomington Police Department said.
Near the intersection, officers found a male lying in the road. The victim, identified Sunday as 20-year-old Nathaniel Stratton of Miromar Lakes, Florida, was taken to IU Health Bloomington Hospital, BPD said, where he was pronounced dead.
The Monroe County Coroner’s Office said in a news release that Stratton was a student at Indiana University. The coroner also said his autopsy will be conducted on Tuesday in Terre Haute where an official cause of death will be determined.
At the scene, an IUPD officer spotted the suspect vehicle near the intersection of Lincoln and 19th. BPD officers arrived to find a black 2012 Mercedes-Benz with a damaged windshield and a heavily damaged electric scooter nearby.
BPD said a security officer who was driving near the crash area described seeing a car that sounded like it was dragging something while driving north on Lincoln Street.
The witness told officers that the car stopped at the intersection of 19th where a woman, later identified as 22-year-old Madelyn N. Howard of Crown Point, and a man exited the car.
Bystanders, BPD said, started telling Howard that she was dragging an electric scooter along with the car. Witnesses also said the bystanders had helped Howard free the scooter from under the car prior to IUPD arriving.
Howard, police said, failed dexterity tests on scene and was taken into custody. She was then taken to IU Health Bloomington Hospital for a blood draw and subsequently moved to the Bloomington Police Department for questioning.
Area security cameras from a nearby business show the car Howard was allegedly driving went onto the sidewalk east of Walnut Street, with police saying the car appeared to be going fast. A person walking on the sidewalk is then seen jumping into the grass to avoid being hit by the car just before the car hit another person on an electric scooter.
Howard was arrested on two charges:
- Operating a vehicle while intoxicated resulting in death, a Level 4 felony, and
- Leaving the scene of an accident resulting in serious bodily injury or death while intoxicated, a Level 3 felony.
Howard is being held in the Monroe County Jail.
