Wichita driver in deadly Easter weekend crash called dad before turning himself in
A Wichita man who fled after hitting two motorcycle riders with his truck at a northwest Wichita intersection over Easter weekend turned himself in because his dad took him back to the site of the deadly crash.
Collin Andrew Becker, 23, called his parents less than two hours after the April 16 collision, saying he “had messed up and was involved in an accident,” according to his arrest affidavit, released Thursday by a Sedgwick County judge.
Becker is charged with one felony count of failing to stop at the scene of an accident in connection with the collision that killed Jacob Fowler and Levi Ward, both 20 and of Wichita, while they were out for a ride on a 2004 Honda Shadow 750. Prosecutors allege Becker “knew or reasonably should have known” that the collision “resulted in injury or death” but left without calling 911 or rendering aid to the injured men, in violation of Kansas law.
Police have said Becker turned his 2011 Dodge Dakota in front of the motorcycle around 2:20 a.m. April 16 at the intersection of 17th and Tyler. The motorcycle was northbound at the time.
Ward was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:31 a.m. Fowler died at a Wichita hospital at 3:13 a.m. Both suffered multiple blunt force injuries.
The affidavit says Becker’s father drove to his son’s west Wichita apartment after the 4 a.m. phone call and saw damage on the driver’s side door of the truck. Authorities say the truck had “extensive damage from the impact” and was missing part of its door handle.
The father told police he went inside the apartment, where Becker “kept apologizing for letting him down.”
Becker told his father he had gotten “hit by someone on a motorcycle and he left the scene” afterward, the affidavit says the father told police.
Becker’s father drove him to the Wichita Police Department’s west-side substation then took him to the crash site after discovering the bureau was still closed for the night.
When Becker arrived, he approached an officer, announced that he had been involved in “an accident” and offered his wrists for handcuffs, according to the affidavit.
Becker told police he “did not want to talk” and refused to voluntarily submit to a field sobriety test or give blood that authorities could use to determine whether he’d driven under the influence of drugs or alcohol, the affidavit says.
Later, when he agreed to talk to the police, Becker posed “several questions about the charges he was facing.”
He “invoked his right to remain silent” when a Wichita police detective, Robert Kempf, asked which direction he had been driving, the affidavit says.
Police later found an open bottle of Elijah Craig Kentucky Bourbon tucked in the Dakota’s passenger door compartment and an information packet for “A New Direction Inc.” and a cellphone on the passenger floorboard, the affidavit says. Authorities also seized the truck as evidence.
Witnesses interviewed by police said before the collision Becker had been at their home, which is about a block away from the crash site, for a gathering of friends. Both told police they did not see him drinking any alcohol.
Police arrested Becker on April 16. He was formally charged on May 2. His next court date is Monday.
