‘Bonus dad,’ 9-year-old daughter in recovery following being struck after school by driver with prior DUI charges

Nine-year-old Mayzee Wilson was coming home from Lidgerwood Elementary School with her mom’s boyfriend on Sept. 22 when a truck ran a stop sign, knocking the pair off his Harley Davidson.
Mayzee’s mom, Bethany Freeland, always checks her daughter and William “Billy” Cochran’s location when the two go riding together. She had only taken her eyes off of her phone for a moment when she got a call from Cochran’s cell – a woman telling her that there had been an accident. Freeland, 21 weeks pregnant, rushed to the scene.
“All I could think about – I’m processing where the motorcycle is laying at in the intersection and how far away they were from it,” Freeland, 29, said. “At first, all these people were saying she was screaming and he was screaming, and that’s awful that they had to hear that, but when I got there it seemed like she was so calm in the moment, and I was so worried, and all he could say to me is he’s so sorry.”
The driver of the Dodge Ram that hit Mayzee and Cochran, 44-year-old Jacob Susol, was sitting on the sidewalk when she got there, Freeland said.
“To see this guy just sitting on the sidewalk like it was no big deal, like nothing was even wrong – you know, he wasn’t bothered at all, it seemed like,” she said. “In some of those situations, you think about how angry you’d be at that person who did that to your babies, but I couldn’t even walk away. I needed to make sure that (Mayzee) could see me the entire time I was there.”
In the seconds following the collision, Cochran, 31, managed to use his body to shield Mayzee from the brunt of the impact, Freeland said, but both were seriously injured. Emergency responders rushed them to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center for treatment.
Mayzee suffered a snapped femur and tibia, the bones nearly pushing through the front of her leg, creating an open wound. Cochran, who was run over by the truck, had his left arm and ankle crushed, his tricep muscles torn apart and his right shoulder dislocated.
Freeland describes herself as “just a stay-at-home mom who takes care of my 9-year-old daughter and everything at home,” adding that her “babies” are her whole world. She has been in a relationship with Cochran for about a year and a half, but the two have been friends since high school.
The day after her family was hospitalized, Freeland said that she was triaged twice for severe dehydration and vomiting due to stress, a response that concerns her due to having miscarried last year.
A Spokane police officer testified in court documents that he noticed Susol displayed “several signs of potential impairment” when he arrived on scene, including bloodshot eyes, a smell of alcohol and falling asleep at one point.
With two previous impaired driving convictions, among other assault and burglary charges, police arrested Susol under suspicion of two counts of vehicular assault.
The Spokesman-Review was unable to reach Susol for comment Monday.
“It made it feel that much worse that this person was even out on the streets and able to do something like this after they’ve continued to make the same poor choice over and over again,” Freeland said. “It almost feels like the city of Spokane failed us and the community, because if it wasn’t my family, it was going to be someone else’s. It’s only a matter of time, with how many charges this person had.”
After surgeries and a blood transfusion, Mayzee was discharged from the hospital on Friday, though she needs a walker or wheelchair while she recovers. Freeland had to buy her a new bedframe and shower equipment to use, and said someone donated a wheelchair to her through Facebook Marketplace.
“I’m not sure how to even wrap my head around it or begin to think about what normalcy is going to be like for us,” Freeland said.
The wheelchair has been “really good,” Mayzee said, though not being able to move on her own is frustrating. Her mom installed a wheelchair ramp Monday, she said.
“I miss being able to walk and stand and run without my leg having to get along with the walker,” she said, adding that she is most looking forward to standing up in the shower and running around when her leg is feeling better.
She was given special access to a no-kids area of the hospital on Sunday to see Cochran, who is still in the hospital.
“It was great. I love her. I couldn’t wait to see her; I was losing my mind not seeing her,” Cochran said. “I’m willing to go through all the pain in the world to make sure those two are OK. I would do anything for them.”
Due in February, Freeland and Cochran’s baby boy will be his first child. Being in the hospital, unable to care for himself or others, he said that everything he had been building “all kind of got taken away within the blink of an eye.”
“I’m just falling apart knowing that I’m not home and I can’t protect them anymore,” Cochran said. “Love your kids as much as you possibly can and see them as much as you possibly can, ‘cause one day (someone) might take it from you.”
Having just gotten a new job as a tow truck driver, Cochran doesn’t have health insurance set up, and now will be unable to work for “a couple months.” Though a stay-at-home mom, Freeland would be unable to care for Cochran if he were discharged from the hospital currently due to her pregnancy. She set up a GoFundMe page to pay for medical expenses and equipment, with Cochran adding that “anything helps.”
“It just, it hurts, because riding motorcycles together was one of their favorite things to do,” she said. “I just really encourage people to take a moment to reflect on the choices they make before they go out and do the things they do in the community, because it’s not just their life on the line, it’s other people. Innocent children, fathers, all of that, and it just sucks. Billy and my daughter are really good people, and they didn’t deserve it, and I feel like it totally could have been prevented.”