Man allegedly hits teen with car because of argument about slumber party

CEDAR CITY – Cedar City Police arrested a man for leaving the scene of an accident Friday evening after officers responded to a hit-and-run call where a minor girl was reported injured. The reason for the alleged hit-and-run, the girl’s mother said, was a disagreement about a slumber party.

Officers took Shawn Thomas Price into custody after responding to a call on Wedgewood Lane in Cedar City at about 7 p.m. Friday, Cedar City Police Sgt. Jimmy Roden said.

Shawn Thomas Price, of Cedar City, Utah, booking photo posted Oct. 17, 2014 | Photo courtesy of Iron County Sheriff's Office
Shawn Thomas Price, of Cedar City, Utah, booking photo posted Oct. 17, 2014 | Photo courtesy of Iron County Sheriff’s Office

When officers arrived on scene, they observed a girl with a foot injury. She told them the injury was caused by a man in a white car who hit her with his vehicle and then left the scene.

Witnesses gave officers the license plate number and a description of the vehicle, Roden said. Price was later located based on that information.

The injured girl’s mother, Jamie Ball, said she saw the whole incident unfold. She said the impetus of the hit-and-run was a question of her daughter and Price’s daughter having a sleepover; Ball said she is still confused about how the situation escalated to the degree that it did.

Ball said her youngest daughter was friends with Price’s daughter from elementary school and they wanted to have a sleepover together. Ball was not comfortable having her daughter sleep over at Price’s home and told her no. Ball said her daughter and Price’s daughter ran off crying, so Ball sent her 13-year-old daughter after them to offer a sleepover at the Balls’ house instead.

Ball said both of her daughters had returned and, as they gathered in front of their apartment to discuss the matter, a white Suzuki Samurai tore into the parking lot, whipping past Ball’s 13-year-old daughter, who was still walking through the parking lot making her way to her mother.

“(My daughter) screamed ‘Mom,’ because she knew who it was and was afraid,” Ball said, “and he (Price) stopped the car and gunned it in reverse directly at my daughter and hit her.”

Ball’s 13-year-old said she was scared and tried to run, but when she got near the curb the car struck her and she “flew” into the rocks. She said she hurt her hip on impact but that she felt lucky not to have fallen off the 10-foot drop only inches from where she had landed.

Despite the 13-year-old’s pain, she grabbed her little sister and ran into the apartment with her to get her out of harm’s way, Ball said.

Ball said Valley View Medical Center in Cedar City treated her daughter Friday night and discharged her with a diagnosis of muscle strain and with a recommendation to see an orthopedic specialist to examine the possibility of a pelvic fracture.

“He said that there was one part on the X-ray that he couldn’t tell,” she said, “so he splinted her from hip to toe.”

After a Monday examination, Ball said, her daughter’s pelvis was determined not to be broken but pain management was still necessary, along with rest. She said the point of impact is bright purple and black and very sensitive to the touch.

Roden said Price was taken into custody Friday night and charged with leaving the scene of an accident with injury and also on an unrelated protective order violation, both class A misdemeanors. He said the protective order had nothing to do with this case, and the violation occurred because Price had been consuming alcohol when police arrived to follow up on the report, which is against the order’s mandate.

At the time of this publication, Price has been released from the Iron County Jail on bond.

Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

Ed. note: The two minor girls in this report who wanted a sleepover are still in elementary school and know each other from school.

Related stories

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @STGnews

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2014, all rights reserved.

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

14 Comments

  • great article October 21, 2014 at 3:08 pm

    just wanted to say thats for the detail.. news lately from anywhere seems to be dulled and not very detailed.

  • great article October 21, 2014 at 3:09 pm

    sorry, “thanks for the detail”… can’t find an edit.

  • Killjoy October 21, 2014 at 3:28 pm

    No wonder Mrs. Ball had a bad feeling. This child in a grown up body just proved why she didn’t feel right.
    Somebody who would attack a child in this manner and so aggressively with a vehicle no less should stay in jail. He’s a danger!

  • Koolaid October 21, 2014 at 4:22 pm

    Ooooohhhh! What a big man! Was he local (in)bred and raised? Hope his cellmates have a ball with him. That’s the least price he should pay.

  • beerbelly October 21, 2014 at 5:04 pm

    what kind of lame charge is “Leaving the Scene of an Injury Accident”? How about Aggravated Assault at the least? Maybe even Attempted Murder since a vehicle is a deadly weapon.
    No mercy for these senseless acts of violence.

    • CALI GIRL October 21, 2014 at 6:01 pm

      ONLY IN UTAH…Calif has much higher fines for this sort of thing. Look at the cost of the bail bond/fine..it makes me sick he needs to be punished with more than a slap on the hand.

  • DAVE RABBITT October 21, 2014 at 5:25 pm

    ¶ I’ve never been fond of current catch-phrases or buzzwords, but “REALLY”??
    Why wasn’t this man charged with “attempted murder”, “assault and battery” or even “Assault with intent to do great bodily harm, less than murder”???
    ¶ Then they find him to have violated a protective order (from some other incident), by consuming alcohol – yet they release him, on bond???
    ¶ And just “why” , is the mother of the girl who was attacked, “still confused about how the situation escalated to the degree that it did”?
    ¶ Anywho – It just boggles my mind why a grown man would attack a 13 year-old girl, with his vehicle, in broad daylight and in front of multiple witnesses? I hope they find this scumbag guilty-as-charged. For once – I wholeheartedly agree, with Koolaid’s reply!

  • Joanna October 21, 2014 at 8:35 pm

    You’d think with such an enormous head this guy would be a little smarter.

  • anon October 21, 2014 at 11:20 pm

    SEEMS KINDA ODD. HUMM

  • Bobber2 October 22, 2014 at 6:50 am

    Typical trailer trash feud, this soap opera happens every day in this community.

  • Koolaid October 22, 2014 at 8:24 am

    These things seem to be a common occurrence in that Mayberry burg of Cedar. Maybe those outsiders who are told if they don’t like it, they should leave, are thinking that leaving would be a good thing.

  • tc rider October 22, 2014 at 9:33 am

    I ride my bike on sidewalks all the time because of two close calls of vehicles swerving accross bike lanes and one time vehicle hit curb right behind me and missed by inchess.
    Both incidents people were on cell phones and Alot of people driving around here must have very important bussiness to attend too, if they have to talk on phones while they drive.
    Unti law enforcment or some new technology comes out that will jam cell phone signals in cars, I will continue to ride my bikes on the sidewalks.

  • sagemoon October 22, 2014 at 10:28 am

    Scum bag.

  • Zonkerb October 25, 2014 at 9:29 pm

    It seems Cedar just found they’re future city council member

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.