MILWAUKEE — Newly released WisDOT video shows a car crashing and flipping on I-43 and the moment when the suspect tried to escape officers by running across the busy freeway.
The WisDOT camera zooms in after the vehicle flips over. It shows a young man and a very young child get out. Sometime later the video shows the same young man run onto the other side of the freeway and jump over the road's barrier, just barely missing vehicles driving at high speeds down the road.
Watch the video:
Authorities are accusing a 21-year-old Milwaukee man of flipping and crashing his car on I-43 near Holt with a four-year-old child and a loaded AK-47 in the vehicle on Tuesday, April 12.
Ladarius D. Davis-Hughes, 21, was charged with second degree recklessly endangering safety, possession of a firearm by adjudicated delinquent, neglecting a child, and two felony counts of bail jumping.
The child's aunt tells us Davis-Hughes is his father.
According to a criminal complaint, sheriff deputies responded to I-43 northbound at Holt around 9:45 a.m. for a vehicle driving recklessly during heavy traffic. The complaint says the car, allegedly driven by Davis-Hughes, was speeding between lanes and cutting off multiple vehicles. The vehicle then struck the median wall head on, bounced off the wall, and hit the wall again before flipping over and landing upside down, and sliding on the roof before coming to a stop, the complaint says.
A deputy observed a four-year-old child climb out of the vehicle through the shattered rear windshield, according to the complaint. Davis-Hughes allegedly told a deputy he was on his way to drop the child off at school and that the vehicle started "acting up."
According to the complaint, the injured child was placed in the back seat of the officer's squad and then Davis-Hughes ran from the scene, allegedly abandoning the child. The child was later turned over to his mother.
Davis-Hughes jumped over a median and ran across southbound traffic. He was eventually taken into custody on the 3200 block of South 3rd Street, according to the complaint.
Officials recovered a Draco Romanian AK-47 style rifle that was loaded with 22 rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber from the back of the car. The complaint also states there was no car seat or booster seat in the car.
In 2019, Davis-Hughes was charged with second degree recklessly endangering safety and criminal damage to property, both felonies, according to Milwaukee County Circuit Court records.
In 2021, he was also charged with possession of a firearm by an adjudicated delinquent of a felony, another felony violation.
If convicted, Davis-Hughes faces up to 38 years in prison and $80,000 in fines. He is due back in court on Tuesday, April 26 for a status conference.
