Inset: Theodore Gause (Wilmington Police Department). Background: The North Carolina driveway where Theodore Gause allegedly hit a 9-year-old sitting on a bicycle and severed his leg (WECT/YouTube).
A North Carolina man wasted on cocaine, opiates and benzodiazepines severed the leg of a 9-year-old boy after he “veered off” a roadway and plowed the youngster into a retaining wall while he was sitting on a bike in his own driveway, cops say.
Theodore Gause, 51, is facing numerous charges — including felony serious injury by a vehicle, felony hit and run, driving while impaired, and driving while his license was revoked — in connection with the April 20 crash in New Hanover County.
A press release posted on Facebook by the Wilmington Police Department says Gause “crossed the centerline” while driving in the 600 block of South 15th Street and smashed the victim, who was “on a bicycle.”
Prosecutors and local officials have said that Gause sent both his car and the boy flying into a retaining wall before coming to a stop, Port City Daily reports.
Prosecutors say Gause was stopped at an intersection near 608 South 15th Street when he began accelerating at a high rate of speed and struck the youth. After the crash, Gause allegedly got out of his vehicle and fled on foot before he was spotted by witnesses and arrested, local NBC affiliate WECT reports.
Gause allegedly told investigators he thought he hit a curb; when he was informed it was a child he tried to run off again, according to WECT, citing information raised by prosecutors at a bond hearing.
Court records viewed by Law&Crime say Gause has an “extensive criminal history” that is “assaultive in nature.” He was released from prison in May 2025 and his parole just ended March 6, per the records.
“[Gause] should have known that the vehicle he was operating was involved in a collision, and that collision resulted in serious injury to [the victim],” an arrest warrant states. “The defendant unlawfully and willfully did operate motor vehicle on street or highway while the defendant’s driver’s license was revoked.”
The arrest warrant says Gause “amputated” the leg of his victim and left him with other serious injuries, which led to his hospitalization at the Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center. Gause was ordered held on a $31 million bond last week and is due back in court on May 7.
