By Anita Hassan and James Pinkerton, Chronicle

Former Houston city councilman and conservative radio talk show host Michael Berry is being accused of crashing his vehicle into another car and leaving the scene outside a Montrose bar last month.

While Berry has not been charged in the hit-and-run, a Houston Police Department crash report identifies a car registered to him as the vehicle suspected in the incident, and the victim said Berry drove the vehicle he saw back into his car.

While police would not comment on the incident, they confirmed a crash at the location and time is under investigation. Berry did not return several phone calls and emails seeking comment.

The alleged hit-and-run occurred around 11 p.m. Jan. 31 in the 2400 block of Converse near Hyde Park outside TC’s Show Bar, a well-known gay bar that hosts popular drag shows. Tuderia Bennett, a bouncer at TC’s, said he was on the front patio that night and saw a black Chevrolet Tahoe traveling south on Converse.

When the Tahoe came to the intersection at Hyde Park, the vehicle suddenly went into reverse, driving backward 70 feet before crashing into Bennett’s Volkswagen Passat, which was parallel parked across the street from TC’s, according to the crash report.

Left the scene twice

The driver of the Tahoe left the scene, Bennett said. Bennett said that as he examined the damage to his vehicle, the Tahoe circled the block, passing him. When Bennett tried to stop the Tahoe by shining his flashlight, he said he recognized the driver as a customer entering the bar that night and getting out of the same vehicle, whom he was later able to identify as Berry.

“There’s no question it was him,” said Bennett, who got the Tahoe’s license plate number as it went by him. Instead of stopping, the driver kept going and later circled the block a second time.

“I thought, OK, maybe he had a change of heart, and he’s going to stop,” Bennett said. However, the driver again left the scene, he said.

Bennett said he called in the hit-and-run to his insurance company when he left work early the next morning and reported it to Houston police two days later. When the officer was making Bennett’s report, she told him the license plate he gave her from the suspected vehicle was registered to Michael Berry. Bennett said he told the officer he had no idea who that was.

“And when she showed me a picture (using her cellphone), I said, ‘Yeah that’s the guy who hit my car,’ ” he said.

Manager saw driver

TC’s bar manager, Rod Gonzales, said he was with Bennett the second time the driver of the Tahoe circled back to the scene of the crash. While he didn’t see the crash, Gonzales recognized Berry as a customer at the bar that night as well as from others.

The bar’s owner, Tim Pugh, said he gave police a copy of the surveillance footage inside TC’s that clearly shows Berry inside the establishment.

Bennett said he knew nothing about Berry, his career or politics. He just wants to be compensated for damage to his vehicle and the case resolved. “I just wanted him (the suspect) to own up to it. To do the right thing.”