KWCH - Kansas News and Weather - New Video Shows Car Smashing Through Wichita City Hall

New Video Shows Car Smashing Through Wichita City Hall

by Rebecca Gannon (WICHITA, Kan.)

The surveillance video shows a Lincoln Towncar crashing through the East-facing doors of Wichita's City Hall, barreling through the hall in an almost perfectly straight line.  The car exits through the west side of the building, destroying security equipment and a revolving door, before stopping in the attached parking garage.

More than a year and a half later, the driver sentenced, and City Hall looks almost exactly like it did before Marcus Johnson drove through it.

Lt. Chris Bannister spent the first hours of January 7, 2008 cleaning up the damage. "It came right through here," he gestured. He pointed from the new black exit doors - which will always stay locked now - and almost straight into the hallway flanked with elevator banks. "And then right though the elevator shaft. It's wide enough to fit a vehicle through. It fit perfectly. It made one little scrape against the marble on City Hall."

Now, city employees walk by new marble tiles - not a scrape to show since the city replaced them.

The video shows a person at the security area - and then the car charges through. But motion activates the cameras - so minutes elapsed between the man and the car.

Johnson's car caused the most damage to in the Security area -- damaging machines, and costing more than $200,000 to repair.

Almost 200 yards from where he started leaving the road, he finally stopped - nearly perfectly - in the one place a car is supposed to be -- a parking spot in the parking garage attached to City Hall.

"Whether it was intentional, or accidental, or he decided to park it or it just hit the wall, only he knows," said Bannister. He smiled when asked if Johnson ever hit his brakes. "I wasn't right behind him, but it does not appear that he hit the brakes."

The one change people will notice sits outside the building - the walkway turned driveway now has concrete road blocks, to keep any more vehicles from making this a drive-thru.

The city says it is considering exchanging the concrete blocks for something more attractive to deter drivers. But those plans are still in the planning stages.

By John Boyd (WICHITA, Kan.)

A man who pleaded no contest to driving his car through Wichita City Hall has been sentenced to just over ten years in prison.

Surveillance video from the crash was released during the sentencing.  It shows shows Johnson's car barrelling through City Hall at several angles, narrowly missing several officers standing inside. No one was hurt in the crash.

Watch Raw Surveillance Video of the Crash - Click the Link on the Left

The crash in January of 2008 caused at least $200,000 in damage to city hall.

Marcus Johnson was charged with one count of criminal damage to property and two counts of criminal threat. He also plead no contest to one count of battery of a law enforcement officer.

He was sentenced Wednesday morning to 122 months in prison.