Westwood city councilman David Waters is usually focused on administrative affairs in the city. For a few minutes on Sunday, though, he found himself unwittingly focused on crime.
Waters and his sons were heading down to Boulevard’s Oktoberfiesta — his wife Mandy manages the Boulevard Beer Hall — driving eastbound on 47th Street when they saw a car speed around the turn from Rainbow Blvd. and clip another vehicle waiting at the intersection to make a turn.
“He didn’t stop. The car had so much momentum that even after he clipped it he kept just going on really fast,” Waters recalls. “I kind of stopped for a second and thought, ‘Did that just happen?'”
When the family saw the occupants of another vehicle get out to make sure the hit driver was okay, Waters realized he’d just witnessed a hit and run. He quickly maneuvered his car to follow the fleeing vehicle westbound on 47th Street in hopes of getting the license plate number. By the time he reached Mission, he’d made visual contact with the car.
“I started reading out the number and told the kids in the backseat to remember it,” he said.
At that point, the driver appeared to recognize Waters was following him, and sped away down Mission. Waters kept a distance behind the driver, and watched him turn off onto a side route through the St. Agnes Catholic Church neighborhood. By luck, police from Roeland Park and Fairway were patrolling the area and drove by Waters’ car. Waters rolled down his window as a Fairway officer came up behind him, and waved her toward the fleeing vehicle. After a short pursuit, the driver eventually stopped and police apprehended him.
An Erik Brandon Wynn was arrested by Westwood Police at 1:35 p.m. Sunday and is facing charges of driving under the influence and failing to stop at the site of an accident. Arrest records show Wynn has faced at least three previous DUI arrests. He is being held in Johnson County Jail on $10,000 bond. Wynn is scheduled to make his first appearance in court on the charges this afternoon at 1:30 p.m.
