Oklahoma father fled the scene of a crash after hitting a street sign, leaving behind his wife, children, and 16-year-old daughter who died from her injuries.
Elliott Binney, 41 had two black eyes and a broken lip in the mugshot taken at Tulsa County Jail several hours after a rollover accident on Jan. 11.
Bixby police responded to the scene at 9:20 pm and transported Binney’s wife, along with two children of elementary school age, to a local hospital for treatment.
Police told the outlet that Shelby Binney had not been wearing her seatbelt when the SUV of the family crashed. She was thrown out of the vehicle on impact. She was declared dead at a hospital later that evening by police, according to the outlet.
Binney, meanwhile, was nowhere to be seen. Still at the scene, his wife told police they had been in a heated argument just moments before the accident.
2 News reported that Binney’s arrest and booking report revealed a bottle and pill bottles that had their labels torn off. The father admitted later that the family bought the liquor earlier that night and that he had taken several swigs of it before he crashed.
Police told 2 News that by the time Binney was arrested the following morning, it was already too late to test his blood alcohol level. Later, the father claimed an oily slick was to blame for his skid.
The morning following the accident, police tracked him to Checotah (about 50 miles away). Binney, according to police, initially fled the scene on foot before getting in a second car and driving further away from the accident.
He walked into a family business to retrieve a car. “We were able to track this vehicle electronically and made an arrest,” Bixby Police Chief Todd Blish said.
When Binney was arrested, an arrest report revealed that a handle for vodka and pill bottles had their labels torn off.
Unnamed witnesses told 2 News that they saw an unidentified man standing outside of the SUV when it crashed. The witness recalled that when he asked the man to get down and asked whether anyone was injured inside the vehicle, the disoriented person ran away.
Police said that witnesses had seen Binney drive at 70 mph, illegally pass cars, and allegedly speed up.
Binney was accused of leaving the scene after a fatal collision, manslaughter in the first degree, and passing a car in a no-pass zone. Online records show that Tulsa County Jail released him on $102,100 bail.
Binney’s driving history is filled with recklessness and hit-and-runs, according to Oklahoma State Courts Network records. This includes previous DUIs as well as three charges of leaving the scene of a crash that were dismissed between 2010 and 2016.
Records show that he was convicted in 2002 of robbery and assault charges with a deadly weapon.
Shelby Binney, a cheerleader and sophomore at Bixby High School, was described as “a bright light” and having a heart of gold in a post on social media from her cheerleading gymnasium.
Binney and her mother both shared photos of their daughter’s memorial on their Facebook profiles.