As is typical for a sunny afternoon, people were sitting and socializing in Centralia’s George Washington Park at around 3:20 p.m. on Wednesday when a vehicle tore through the park and did donuts on the lawn near the park’s gazebo.
One witness who talked to The Chronicle after the incident said she and a few friends were sitting on a bench in the park when another friend over near the gazebo yelled at her to “watch out.”
“He could have killed several (people),” the woman said, pointing out places in the park where she remembered people were sitting when the vehicle, which she said was driven by a white male, drove around them.
Tire marks were still visible in the grass Thursday morning, showing the vehicle’s destructive route through the park.
“Why in the world would he want to hurt our park? The park never did nothing to him,’” the woman said.
Officers with the Centralia Police Department were dispatched to the scene at 3:20 p.m., at which time the vehicle had already fled the scene. The case was still under investigation as of Thursday morning, but officers have contacted multiple witnesses from the park and obtained security camera footage of the incident, according to a report from the department.
When asked if the incident made her think twice about going to Washington Park, the woman said it did, but that she was homeless and didn’t have anywhere else to go.
“I know we’re a nuisance as transients, but somebody still loves us out here. We have parents, we have friends. I have children — I’m a grandma. It’s like, ‘Hey, take care of our town. Don’t tear it up,’” she said.
