LANE RANGER: Mystery motorist may be key to tragedy
Joey Ledford - Staff (AJC)   Sunday, March 9, 2003

Officer James Weinmann doesn't remember a thing about the night he and his best friend were fighting a crazed pedestrian in the middle of the poorly lighted Perimeter.

"I don't even remember going to work that night, let alone all the things that happened at the hospital," said the 27-year-old East Point patrolman, whose severe injuries included a concussion when all three men were hit by vehicles.

"Of three people at the scene, two are deceased and the third has no recollection of it," said Georgia state Trooper Bryan Clanton, who is still investigating the Dec. 22, 2002, tragedy.

Weinmann and Officer Chris Betts shared an Ohio childhood, and Weinmann was Betts' best man at his wedding. They were also, as Weinmann put it, "battle buddies," bunkmates at Fort McPherson during their military days.

Both patrolled for the city of East Point, and though they weren't partners --- they drove separate cruisers --- Weinmann was there to back up Betts when his friend encountered a hostile man walking on I-285 after midnight.

Betts had fought with and arrested Renard Banks, 34, of Riverdale, before, perhaps even twice, said Weinmann. Weinmann himself knows from reading Banks' arrest records that he once arrested him, too. On this night, Banks was high on cocaine, according to later blood tests.

The three men were fighting in the right lane of northbound I-285 at the Camp Creek Parkway exit when three vehicles came along. A Ford Windstar driven by an Atlanta woman started to change lanes to avoid the men, but struck Betts.

Then a second vehicle, believed to be a late 1980s-to-early-1990s Honda Accord --- but possibly a Civic --- struck Weinmann and Banks in the right lane and then traveled into the second lane, hitting Betts again. A third vehicle missed the men but hit the Windstar.

Betts and Banks were dead at the scene, said Clanton. Weinmann suffered a broken tibia, femur and pelvis.

Chillingly, the driver of the Honda spoke to one of the officers called to the scene and revealed she had hit someone. The officer asked her to wait until he had seen to Weinmann's injuries, but in the confusion, she got into her car and drove away.

Clanton describes her as a woman in her 30s, around 5-foot-5 or 5-foot-6, with long hair. She was wearing a white lab coat, smock or possibly a nursing uniform, he said.

"She's a huge piece of the puzzle that's missing," said the trooper.

Clanton believes Betts was killed by the initial impact, but others, like his superior officer, East Point Lt. Charles Pritchard, aren't so sure.

"I'm almost led to believe he was trying to get up when he was struck the second time," he said.

Why would someone who had already owned up to what was probably an unavoidable accident climb back into her car and drive away?

"It will be something stupid, like a [prior] failure to appear, a suspended license, or something else," said Pritchard.

Clanton agrees. "She was either DUI or had an outstanding warrant," he said.

He has looked at 21 cars that people believed might have been involved. He has pored over 118 pieces of evidence from the scene, including Weinmann's wristwatch, found near the median wall.

Betts' family deserves closure, said Pritchard. And the officers want to know all of the facts about the loss of their colleague and the serious injuries to Weinmann, who is not due to return to duty until October.

"Basically, everything we have is still a theory," said Clanton. "I don't like having theories. I like having facts."

The Windstar driver, very distraught from the beginning, faces no charges. But officers won't say that about the driver of the Honda.

"I was trying to empathize with her," said Clanton. "But it's been too long now. If we do locate her, warrants will be taken."
 

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