Months before crash, Britt Reid was accused in road rage encounter with off-duty cop
A lawyer representing a child severely injured in a 2021 drunken driving crash caused by former Chiefs assistant coach Britt Reid says authorities failed to act months earlier when Reid was accused in a road rage confrontation.
Less than 90 days before Reid, under the influence of alcohol, hit two cars on Interstate 435 and caused 5-year-old Ariel Young’s traumatic brain injury, he was accused of punching the driver’s side window of a personal vehicle driven by an off-duty Olathe police officer.
The encounter is described in documents recently made public with the conclusion of Reid’s criminal case, which ended in November. Reid, the son of Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, was sentenced to three years in prison for felony driving while intoxicated, causing serious injury.
According to the documents, on Nov. 10, 2020, the officer was driving to work and stopped at an intersection at Old 56 and West 151st Street in Gardner. Reid pulled into the lane next to him.
Reid was driving a 2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee and almost struck the officer’s vehicle when he tried to get in front of him and make a left turn.
The officer honked his horn at Reid, who then slammed on his brakes, got out of his vehicle and yelled, “You got a (expletive) problem?”
Reid then punched the officer’s window.
The case was investigated but prosecutors never filed charges against Reid.
Attorney Tom Porto, who represented Ariel’s family after the crash a few months later, said authorities should have taken action then.
“Unfortunately, we are left to wonder had his prior criminal conduct been prosecuted, could the tragedy of February 4, 2021 somehow have been prevented?” Porto said Friday.
A spokesperson for the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office could not be reached for comment on Friday.
J.R. Hobbs, a defense attorney for Reid, said Jackson County prosecutors and the judge were aware of the prior incident when sentencing recommendations were made for the 2021 DWI case. Hobbs said that did not factor into the judge’s sentence.
Investigation of run-in with officer
According to a 2020 incident report, the off-duty police officer said he thought Reid would try to fight him when he approached the officer’s vehicle.
“...had no doubt Reid would have struck him if he got out of his vehicle or didn’t immediately leave the area as he did,” the incident report said.
An officer investigating the incident wrote that he identified Reid as the driver through a records check. The officer went to the residence listed on Reid’s driver’s license.
When he arrived, the officer said a woman who answered the door said Reid was not there. The officer asked the woman what vehicle Reid normally drove and she replied he drove a gray Jeep. He said a gray Jeep was parked in the street and asked her to get Reid to come to the door.
She complied, and the officer was able to talk to Reid.
The officer asked Reid who was driving his vehicle at the time of the earlier incident. Reid replied, “I have no idea.”
Reid initially denied he was involved in the road rage incident. He told the officer that he honked his horn when another motorist was driving too close to him.
Reid said he then pulled over, got out of his car and knocked on the motorist’s window but had no intentions on fighting the driver.
“Well, he almost hit my car off the road,” Reid allegedly told the officer.
The incident was later forwarded to the Johnson County District Attorney’s office, but prosecutors did not file charges against Reid.
Crash injures 5-year-old Ariel Young
Roughly three months later, on Feb. 4, 2021, Reid was under the influence of alcohol when he caused a crash that left Ariel severely injured.
Reid had just left the team’s practice facility and was near I-435 when his pickup truck slammed into a Chevrolet Impala, which he said he did not see because its lights were off. Reid said he continued south on the interstate and then rear-ended a Chevy Traverse. He called 911 moments later.
Ariel was a passenger in one of the two vehicles that Reid struck. Ariel’s mother, Felicia Miller, had arrived to help her cousin whose Impala had run out of gas and stalled. Miller said she got back into the driver’s seat of her Traverse and looked in the rear view mirror when she saw the headlights of an approaching vehicle.
Prosecutors said Reid was driving 83 mph seconds before the collision and had a serum blood alcohol content of 0.113 about two hours after the crash. According to Missouri law, the legal limit is 0.08.
Reid told an arriving officer that he had been drinking earlier the day of the crash.
Miller has said her daughter is still impacted from the crash. Ariel drags her right foot when she walks, has trouble keeping her balance and becomes nauseated during car rides. Ariel takes special education classes and now wears glasses.
The Kansas City Chiefs later reached a financial agreement with Ariel’s family to pay for her ongoing medical treatment and “long-term financial stability.”
This story was originally published April 7, 2023 at 5:06 PM.
