A St. Louis-area man has been charged with vehicular homicide after he allegedly ran over and killed a two-year old girl with his truck Saturday night in the parking lot of a Burlington motel. Police say 34-year old Phillip Evans of Wood River, Illinois — an iron worker at a new fertilizer plant being built near Wever — left the scene after hitting the child.
Dniyah Brider was taken to Great River Medical Center in West Burlington, where she was pronounced dead. Police were given a description of a Dodge pickup, which they later located back in the Midtown Motel parking lot. They traced it to Evans, questioned him, and then arrested him.
Lt. Jeff Klein of the Burlington Police Department says their 10-hour long investigation also revealed that Evans had been drinking. They had blood drawn from him and sent it to the state DCI crime lab.
(Reporting by Mark Morris, KBUR, Burlington)