Click here to subscribe today or Login.
WILKES-BARRE — City police charged a Plains Township man with fleeing the scene after a crash and later found running naked along Wilkes-Barre Boulevard.
Kevin Newberry, 20, of Hancock Street, told a city police officer he was the “Messiah” after he was arrested Saturday night, according to court records.
The incident began when a woman reported her BMW was struck from behind while traveling on East Main Street at about 7:30 p.m.
According to the criminal complaint:
A woman told police she was traveling on East Main Street when her BMW was struck from behind by another vehicle. She said the driver of the other vehicle, a Pontiac Grand Am, went around her and parked further down the street where the driver took off running.
She was not able to identify the driver.
Police said the airbags inside the Pontiac were deployed. The Pontiac was traced to the vehicle’s owner on Hancock Street where Newberry resides.
About 30 minutes after the hit and run crash, police received a report of a man, identified as Newberry, running naked in the area of Wilkes-Barre Boulevard and Conyngham Avenue.
An officer encountered a naked Newberry running along Wilkes-Barre Boulevard near Butler Street.
Newberry then jumped through the passenger side window of a vehicle that stopped to pick him up.
Police conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle near Conyngham Avenue.
An officer said Newberry was leaning over to the driver as he was pulled outside and arrested.
As Newberry was being escorted to a cruiser, police said he kept yelling he was the “Messiah and he was here to save us,” the complaint says.
When the officer asked him the location of his clothes, Newberry said he was “just reborn.”
The driver of the vehicle that picked up Newberry near Butler Street told the officer that he needs help.
Police charged Newberry with open lewdness, false identification to law enforcement, disorderly conduct, accidents involving damage to attended vehicle, failure to report an accident and public drunkenness. The charges were filed with District Judge Thomas F. Malloy Sr. in Wilkes-Barre as a preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 17 in Central Court.