A Columbus woman faces vehicular homicide charges after police say she ran a man who had pursued her for fleeing the scene of a minor car crash in a Kroger parking lot in Westerville.
Danielle Henry, 34, of the city’s South Side, is charged with aggravated vehicular homicide, involuntary manslaughter, and failure to stop in connection with the incident, which happened the morning of Oct. 22 at a Kroger located at 55 W. Schrock Road near South State Street in Westerville.
According to a criminal complaint filed by Westerville police, Henry, who did not have a valid driver’s license, was involved in a minor vehicle crash in the parking lot of the Kroger store and fled the scene. The other driver, Ibrahim Diakite, followed Henry for almost a mile on West Schrock Road, according to the criminal complaint.
When both drivers reached Schrock and Cooper roads, Diakite pulled his vehicle in front of hers and exited his vehicle to stop Henry from fleeing. He eventually got on the top of her hood to stop her from leaving.
Henry “jerked her vehicle several times” to try and throw Diakite off of her SUV. When that didn’t work, she accelerated up to around 45 miles per hour while he was still on the hood. Diakite was pulled underneath Henry’s vehicle and dragged between 300 and 600 feet, according to the criminal complaint.
Diakite was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Henry fled the scene, but was arrested days later on Oct. 25, according to Franklin County court records.
Henry has a court date scheduled for Nov. 4. She has been ordered held on a $750,000 bond.
Reporter Shahid Meighan can be reached at smeighan@dispatch.com, at ShahidMeighan on X, and at shahidthereporter.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus woman charged with fleeing minor accident, striking pursuing victim, killing him
Reporting by Shahid Meighan, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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