Copperas Cove teen arrested on warrants for injury to autistic child, DWI

By LYNETTE SOWELL

Cove Leader-Press

Liam Alan Johnson, 17, was arrested at Copperas Cove High School on Tuesday on a warrant for injury to a child, elderly or disabled individual in connection with a Nov. 15 off-campus incident that left a 16-year-old autistic boy with a facial fracture.

According to the arrest affidavit, the 16-year-old boy’s grandfather said that on Nov. 18, he had noticed the boy’s face was swollen and he began to suspect he had a jaw injury, so asked the boy about what had happened. At first, the boy said he’d been struck on the face by a football, but eventually admitted he had been jumped because he “had information about an incident involving another juvenile.”

Initially, the boy was unable to recall what had happened during the assault, but the grandfather said it was either because the boy is autistic, or due to losing consciousness.

The boy alleged that Johnson had struck him on the face with a skateboard, while the boy was sitting on a curb listening to music in the vicinity of Hardemann Street and Rodney Ave. A neighbor had asked him if he was okay after the assault, and the boy said he’d been hit by a skateboard.

The grandfather provided photos of the boy’s facial injuries and said that he had been seen and treated at AdventHealth, where an x-ray revealed him to have a right maxillary sinus fracture.

Along with the injury warrant, Johnson was also arrested on behalf of the Coryell County Sheriff’s Office for driving while intoxicated with a child under the age of 15. No information related to that charge was available at press time.

Johnson, 17, was already indicted by a Coryell County grand jury in November of this year on a charge of evading arrest or detention with a vehicle.

As of Thursday, he was in the Coryell county Jail on bonds totalling $52,500.