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ST. GEORGE — A St. George man was arrested Saturday after police say he struck a child while riding his motorcycle while under the influence of alcohol.
Gregory McClary, 62, was booked into jail on suspicion of DUI with a serious bodily injury and failure to remain at the scene of an accident.
According to a probable cause statement, McClary was arrested just after 9:30 p.m. Saturday. Officers responded to reports of a hit-and-run and located an injured child at the scene.
The child was transported to the hospital and was determined to have a lacerated liver and bruising on the brain.
Witnesses described having seen a motorcycle hit the child and then drive away despite witnesses calling for it to stop. They described its operator as a man dressed in black with a handlebar mustache.
Near the scene of the incident, police found an unoccupied motorcycle matching the witnesses' description. It was damaged on the front and was registered to nearby resident McClary.
When an officer responded to the registration address, McClary "confirmed the motorcycle located nearby was his, and that he had been operating it before it tipped over and would not start," the statement says. McClary noted injuries to his ankle and wrist from when his motorcycle tipped over.
McClary told the officer he had left an address near the collision and had heard shouting at one point but wasn't sure why. The statement says he admitted to drinking before he drove the motorcycle home.
The responding officer "observed slurred speech, poor balance, and an odor consistent with alcohol consumption" while speaking with McClary. He administered field sobriety tests, at which point he determined "that there was evidence that he was under the influence of alcohol" and that McClary "was the operator of the vehicle that had struck the child."
The arresting officer also noted that McClary was on probation or parole when the hit-and-run occurred.
