Man accused of hitting Henderson police sergeant with car indicted

A man accused of hitting a Henderson police sergeant with his car was supposed to be on house arrest at the time and has been indicted by a grand jury, prosecutors said Friday.

Johnathan Gaston, 43, was indicted on a slew of charges including counts of attempted murder of a first responder, battery with a deadly weapon, carrying a concealed firearm and possession of a controlled substance, prosecutor Michael Dickerson said at a grand jury return hearing.

Henderson police have said he struck Henderson Police Department Sgt. Scott Alward with a Jeep on Jan. 13, causing Alward to suffer a head injury that required 11 staples.

“This was a deliberate act in an attempt to try to kill Sgt. Alward,” Dickerson said.

He requested that Gaston continue to be held without bail, a request Chief District Judge Jerry Wiese granted.

Dickerson said Gaston was supposed to be under house arrest at the time of the recent incident, but had cut off his monitoring bracelet in October and fled.

“He’d been in the wind since,” the prosecutor said.

Gaston has an extensive criminal history and previously hit a Metropolitan Police Department vehicle, according to Dickerson, who said no one was injured in the prior incident.

Dickerson said Gaston had “all kinds of other people’s personal identifying information” when he was arrested, including credit cards, driver’s licenses and Social Security cards.

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.