Suspect in crash due for hearing

A court hearing is scheduled today for a 19-year-old accused of jumping into Little Rock City Director Doris Wright’s convertible before it crashed.

Brakell Thaddeus Howard of Little Rock will appear via video for an arraignment at Little Rock District Court. He is charged with aggravated assault, according to jail records.

Howard was booked into the Pulaski County jail about 2:30 p.m. Friday after receiving treatment at Baptist Health Medical Center, records show. As of Monday evening, he was still being held at the facility, and no bail had been set.

Police said Howard first entered a different vehicle in the area of the crash, which occurred near the intersection of West 15th and South Battery streets on the afternoon of Oct. 3. He slapped a 27-year-old woman in that car across the face before she and another person in the car removed him and told him to leave them alone, according to a Little Rock Police Department report.

Officers said Howard then ran north on South Battery Street and jumped into Wright’s convertible Volkswagen Beetle.

Witnesses told police the man grabbed Wright’s car door and started yelling at Wright to stop. Wright then swerved and lost control of the car, hitting a tree and throwing the man into the street. The car overturned about three times and came to rest upright in a yard on Battery Street, the witnesses said. Officers found Howard lying near the wreckage, according to a report.