Lieutenant Howell stopped to assist a motorist and his pregnant wife at Southwest
Eighty-ninth on United States Highway 62 in Oklahoma City. As Lieutenant Howell
approached the vehicle as intoxicated driver veered from the inside lane to the shoulder and the right front of the vehicle struck the Trooper. The driver, a Chickasha man, left the scene without stopping and was apprehended by the Oklahoma City police as Southwest Fifteenth and Agnew a short time later.

He was subsequently sentenced to a lengthy prison term.