GASTONIA, N.C. — While Gastonia Police officers were working to get information on a reported assault this past weekend, a driver in a truck nearby struck a woman sitting on a driveway, and she later died from her injuries.
According to the Gastonia Police Department, officers were called to a neighborhood on Davis Park Road after someone reported a possible assault in the area. Officers got there around 6:15 p.m. Saturday and they saw a truck turn onto the driveway.
“Officers tried to alert the driver of the truck that [Whitney] Calhoun was sitting on the driveway and get him to stop,” GPD said in a statement. “The truck continued driving on the driveway, failed to stop, and struck Calhoun.”
Police said Calhoun, 33, died at the hospital Wednesday afternoon.
The driver in the truck, identified as 53-year-old Ray Charles Weber, was arrested on Saturday and initially charged with driving while intoxicated and reckless driving. After Calhoun’s death, Weber was again arrested and charged with death by motor vehicle, according to GPD.
Calhoun’s brother, Jordan, says he’s now trying to explain to her four-year-old daughter that her mom can’t come home.
“I don’t think it gets any worse than that,” Jordan told Channel 9′s Ken Lemon. “It’s kind of mind-blowing, to be honest with you.”
Weber is being held in the Gaston County Jail on a bond of $500,000.
GPD said in a statement that officers “were given information that no assault occurred prior to Calhoun being struck by Weber’s vehicle.” Investigators are still working to find out if an assault occurred before the officers got to the house.
(WATCH BELOW: 1 dead, another hurt in crash on busy Gaston County highway, authorities say)
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