INDEPENDENT NEWSMEDIA
A 41-year-old woman has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for driving her pickup truck through a Peoria park that authorities said was filled with more than a dozen children.
Brandie Gotch had pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated assault. She ran over a 12-year-old girl during the February 2024 incident at Westgreen Park, according to a release Saturday from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.
Gotch’s children were fighting with each other at the park when other kids at the park “were egging them on and recording the altercation,” the release stated.
“As this was happening, Gotch arrived at the park to pick up her kids. While walking them back to her truck, a boy on the playground called her a name. Gotch went over to him and started pulling him by his hair. A second boy called her a name, and she chased him around the park with a stick.”
Gotch then got into her truck with her children as “the second boy stood behind the truck, dancing and mocking her. He eventually moved away to stand by his sister,” authorities stated in the release.
Gotch backed out of the parking space, revved her engine and drove at the boy and his sister. He was able to jump out of the way, but his sister’s leg was run over. Gotch kept driving through the park where more than a dozen other children were at the time, including some who had to run to get out of the truck’s path, according to the release.
Gotch was arrested at home a short time later.
“This could have been a much more tragic situation,” Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said.
“Thankfully the worst injury in this was a sprained ankle and some bad scrapes and bruises. Even when angry or frustrated, it’s up to adults to act like adults. It is never OK to take our rage out on a kid.”