UPDATE: Autistic Child Killed in Cumberland, Suspect Arrested

CUMBERLAND, Ind. — A 22-year-old Cumberland man is behind bars after a 37-hour investigation into a hit-and-run crash that claimed the life of a non-verbal 6-year-old boy with autism.

Tyler Johnson, 22, was arrested Monday afternoon during a traffic stop on North Cumberland Road near 21st Street. He faces a preliminary charge of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, a Level 4 felony.

The tragedy unfolded early Sunday morning right outside the Cumberland Metropolitan Police Department. At approximately 2:35 a.m., a passerby flagged down an officer in the 11500 block of East Washington Street after spotting someone lying in the roadway.

The officer discovered the victim, later identified by the Marion County Coroner’s Office as 6-year-old Jari Vontae Spencer, suffering from severe injuries. The officer performed CPR on the child until medics arrived to transport him to Riley Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Investigators believe Jari slipped out of his nearby home while his parents were asleep. He wandered onto East Washington Street (U.S. Route 40), where he was struck by a vehicle that immediately fled the scene.

“This is obviously one that it’s kind of broken everybody’s heart, really pulled on a lot of emotions with everyone,” Cumberland Police Captain Mark Waggoner said during a Monday press conference.

The notification process was uniquely devastating for both the family and first responders. According to Waggoner, Jari’s parents realized he was missing and walked up to the active crash scene, hoping police simply had him in safe custody. Instead, officers had to deliver the tragic news.

“There’s no really words to describe the scene of having to tell parents that their six-year-old child is dead from an accident,” Waggoner said. “It’s just gut-wrenching. It’s hard to deliver that message. It’s hard to deal with that for them and for us.”

Detectives caught a break in the case by utilizing a combination of business surveillance footage and public-funded automated license plate readers (LPRs) to track down the vehicle involved—a 2004 Chevy Aveo. Through the tracking data, police located a previous registered owner who had sold the car to an acquaintance just two weeks prior. The buyer was identified as Johnson.

While police believe the initial collision was a tragic accident rather than an intentional act, Waggoner emphasized that Johnson’s decision to flee is what escalated the situation into a severe felony.

“I think he realizes the gravity of the situation,” Waggoner noted. “If he would have stopped, I think this would have been a very different situation. We still would have had a life lost, but I think some responsibility would have been a lot easier to handle.”

The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office will make the final determination on formal criminal charges.