Watertown teens chase down hit-and-run driver later charged with OUI

While walking home from football practice last week, three Watertown High School students helped crack a hit-and-run case involving an alleged drunk driver. 

The teens, Joel Montoya, Boran Akisik, and Riaz Khan, were walking on Palfrey Street around 9 p.m. Thursday when they saw a black car allegedly run a stop sign and slam into a white delivery car near Pearl Street, according to a Boston 25 report.

The teens said they witnessed the driver, a man, slowly continue traveling ahead, and they attempted to speak to him. The man told the boys he was fine and drove away, though he appeared intoxicated.

“The white car got pushed into the stones of a house,” Khan told the news outlet. “Airbags came off and everything. He probably didn’t think anyone was going to notice. … I got his license plate, and I also got to see what type of car it was.”

The boys checked on the person in the white car, who was unharmed. Officers arrived, and as the teens were speaking to them, the hit-and-run suspect returned to the scene. 

“He just drove past everyone as if nothing happened,” said Khan. “I just told the police, I’m like, ‘Yo, the dude who just crashed into the car is literally right there.’”

Howard Brown, 45, allegedly admitted to police that he was the driver responsible for hitting the white car. Officers said Brown slurred his words, smelled of alcohol, blew a .12 BAC, and failed a field sobriety test, according to news reports.

Brown faces charges of operating under the influence (OUI) and leaving the scene of property damage, according to officials.

Watertown High School Football Team Head Coach Joe Carroll praised his players’ actions, telling WCVB, “That’s exactly what you should be doing if you’re a bystander.”

“To be there and doing the right thing, I think it’s awesome,” he said. “They’re getting the messages that we’re saying to them constantly.”

Morgan Rousseau is a freelance writer for Boston.com, where she reports on a variety of local and regional news.