BAY CITY, Michigan — A 19-year-old Bay City man turned himself in at the Bay County Courthouse on Wednesday, November 4, in connection with an October hit-and-run in which, police say, he intentionally drove his pickup truck into a 14-year-old boy riding a mini-bike on the Bay City Railtrail — striking, investigators believe, the wrong person. Owen Wheeler was booked into the Bay County Jail and faces multiple felony counts, including assault with intent to murder, according to a press release from the Bay City Department of Public Safety reported by MLive and Law & Crime. The charges are allegations; Wheeler is presumed innocent unless the case is proved in court.

Source: MLive, reporting Bay City Department of Public Safety statements, Nov 4-5, 2026

The crash happened on October 22 at about 4:45 p.m. near Maplewood Park, around First Street and North Sheridan Street, on the Bay City Railtrail — a paved trail system built for walkers, cyclists and other non-motorized users. The 14-year-old told officers he was riding his gas-powered mini-bike at about 15 miles per hour when he was struck from behind by a large vehicle, and that he had no idea why it happened, MLive reported. Awaaz Punjab does not name minor victims; the boy is identified here only by his age and city.

Source: MLive, reporting Bay City Department of Public Safety statements, Nov 4-5, 2026

The boy suffered major injuries, including two spinal compression fractures, and was taken to hospital; he was released the following day, according to the reports, though his family remains concerned about his long-term recovery. Witnesses reported that the driver was screaming profanities at the boy before the collision, and the impact threw him from the bike. Police say the driver fled the scene and abandoned the pickup.

Source: Law & Crime, Nov 4, 2026

How police identified the driver — and the wrong-person allegation

Investigators pieced the case together from video supplied by witnesses and nearby surveillance cameras, which showed the boy was hit intentionally by a green 1997 Dodge Ram pickup travelling roughly 40 miles per hour, MLive reported. The truck's licence plate led police to Wheeler. Officers also received tips that Wheeler had been bragging on Snapchat about running a kid over, according to the reports, and other reporting said he had falsely claimed his truck was stolen. According to the accounts carried by MLive and Law & Crime, Wheeler had allegedly been angry at another male juvenile and struck the 14-year-old without confirming who he was — a mistaken-identity attack on a child who, by his own account to officers, had no connection to whatever dispute preceded it.

Source: MLive, reporting Bay City Department of Public Safety statements, Nov 4-5, 2026

Court records cited in the reports show Wheeler was charged in 2025 with carrying a concealed weapon and with open alcohol in a vehicle. Those earlier charges are part of his record as reported; they are separate from the new felony counts and are not evidence in this case. The Bay City Department of Public Safety has not, in the reporting available at publication, published a fuller list of the new counts or a bond figure, and no arraignment date had been reported.

Source: Law & Crime, Nov 4, 2026

The trail, the law and what the charge means

The Bay City Railtrail is a paved, non-motorized trail network — a route where families walk, children ride and no motor traffic is supposed to be. A pickup travelling at an estimated 40 miles per hour in that space is the core of the police case: this was not charged as a traffic accident but as a deliberate act, which is why the lead count reported is assault with intent to murder, one of the most serious assault charges in Michigan law, rather than a hit-and-run traffic offence alone. Leaving the scene of a crash that injures someone is itself a felony in Michigan, separate from any assault charge.

Two cautions belong on the record. First, everything about intent — that the strike was deliberate, that Wheeler was angry at someone else, that he bragged about it afterwards — is the police and prosecution account as carried by MLive and Law & Crime; Wheeler has not been convicted of anything in this case, and his side of the story has not been reported. Second, the victim is a minor: he is not named in this report, and readers in the Bay City area who know the families are asked to respect a 14-year-old's privacy while he recovers from spinal fractures.

Bay City sits in Michigan's Saginaw Bay region, an area with a growing Punjabi and South Asian community built around trucking, farming and small business along the I-75 corridor. For diaspora parents, the case lands on a familiar fear: a shared trail — the kind of place children are sent precisely because it is away from traffic — allegedly turned into the scene of a deliberate attack, and a teenager now facing a murder-intent charge over a few seconds of rage aimed, police say, at the wrong child entirely.