Burien man pleads guilty to Gorge hit-and-run incident

EPHRATA — A Burien man was sentenced for ramming a security vehicle at the Gorge Amphitheatre with a Hummer and fleeing the scene.

Imphamous Kinney, 22, of Burien, pleaded guilty to reckless driving and hit-and-run. Grant County Superior Court Judge John Antosz followed a joint recommendation between Deputy Prosecutor Mark Laiminger and defense attorney Susan Oglebay and sentenced Kinney to 364 days, with 362 days suspended for two years on each of the two charges.

Kinney’s sentence stems from an incident on June 27, 2015 at the Gorge Amphitheatre, when deputies with the Grant County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a vehicle driving through a fence and hanging from a cliff outside of the Gorge Campground during the Paradiso Festival. Authorities responded to the scene, but were unable to find any problems with the exterior fence at the west end of the campground area, according to police records.

The vehicle, a Hummer H3, was eventually found, with Crowd Management Services (CMS) employees parking an ATV in the front and back of the vehicle. As personnel were getting off of their ATVs, the vehicle driver, Kinney, started to back up the vehicle. The Hummer hit and pushed one ATV, with CMS staff attempting to get out of the way.

As a CMS employee opened the door to the suspect vehicle, Kinney accelerated forward and struck and partially drove over another ATV. Kinney drove out of the campground, with deputies pursuing the vehicle south on Silica Road. Kinney turned east onto a canal access road and went into an apple orchard. A pursuing deputy momentarily lost sight of the Hummer, but was able to spot the vehicle a short time later heading south toward Baseline Road, traveling along canal access roads.

“I saw the vehicle go off-road and come back up to a small feeder canal where the vehicle came to an abrupt stop as if it had collided with something. I saw approximately four subjects exit the vehicle and run northbound,” wrote a deputy.

The occupants of the Hummer started heading toward nearby vineyards and sagebrush, with Kinney later returning to the vehicle and taken into custody. He admitted that he was the driver of the vehicle and fled police, “at the urging of his friends that were in the vehicle.” Two other occupants who were in the Hummer during the pursuit were eventually caught, positively identified and released from police custody, according to police records.

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.