A machete, giant teddy bear and a SUV all linked to a downtown Pasco attack

A 36-year-old woman is accused of trying to attack a man with a machete, then hitting him with her SUV.

Police said Shanael T. Benett-Wyatt’s Ford Expedition was easy to identify. It was the one with a giant teddy bear strapped to the roof.

The Pasco woman is now in the Franklin County jail, with bail set at $25,000 on suspicion of first-degree assault and vehicular assault.

Witnesses said Benett-Wyatt was pulling into a parking spot near Peanuts Park in downtown Pasco about 8 p.m. July 15, when a man confronted her and started yelling, “This is my turf.”

That’s when she allegedly stepped out of her SUV with a machete and tried to hit the man. People in the area stepped in, took the machete from Benett-Wyatt and stopped the two from attacking each other.

Benett-Wyatt got back into her car and allegedly drove over the curb and struck the man in the leg, knocking him down, said police.

She then allegedly put the SUV into reverse and drove at him again, but didn’t hit him. She then drove away.

When police finally caught up with the man to talk with him, he had a cast on his leg but he refused to talk with officers, said court documents.

Police were called the next day to investigate a Ford Expedition with a teddy bear on top parked near Peanuts Park with some people inside.

Later, Benett-Wyatt allegedly told police the machete was just to scare the man away because he previously assaulted her, and she didn’t intend to hit him with her car.