A Louisiana Tech student from Delhi was arrested early Saturday morning after he was allegedly involved in a hit and run accident while intoxicated.
Louisiana Tech Police responded to a hit and run in campus parking lot on West Mississippi Avenue just after midnight Saturday morning. The victim said a white truck had struck her vehicle and then left the scene. However, she obtained a partial license plate number and saw the vehicle turn into a nearby fraternity house parking lot.
Officers went to the fraternity house and located the vehicle as well as a cell phone on the ground nearby. The vehicle was registered on campus to Bradley Slaton Gates, 23. When the phone number on file for Gates was called, the discovered cell phone rang.
Police had numerous conversations with fraternity members to attempt to locate Gates who eventually came outside. Police observed signs of intoxication and administered field sobriety tests. Gates performed poorly on the tests and admitted he had struck a white Jeep in the parking lot and then left and came to the fraternity house. He admitted drinking, but not since the accident.
Damage was found on Gates’s truck as well as a damaged windshield which appeared to have been punched from the inside. Gates had injuries to his knuckles.
Gates was arrested and taken to the Lincoln Parish Detention Center where a breath test was administered showing a blood alcohol concentration of .187g%. Gage was booked for first offense DWI, hit and run, driving, and reckless operation of a vehicle. Bail was set at $3,500.
This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named or shown in photographs or video as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
