A tow truck driver’s attempt to repossess a $500 car ended with murder, Texas cops say

A tow truck driver who was new on the job was murdered while repossessing a car Monday in Texas, media outlets report.

The vehicle was worth about $500, his employer said.

Zach Johnson, 24, was towing a 2003 Nissan car at a Best Western in Lake Dallas, about 45 miles northeast of Fort Worth, when the owner opened fired, KXAS reported. The shooter fired down on Johnson from his third-floor hotel room, KTVT said.

Johnson was about to drive away with the car in tow when gunfire hit him from above, The Dallas Morning News reported.

He was found in the parking lot with a gunshot wound when police arrived, according to a news release. Johnson died at a hospital in Denton.

Barry DeGeorge, 37, is charged with murder, The Dallas Morning News reported. DeGeorge told police that he believed Johnson was stealing his car, KXAS reported.

Johnson had just started working at Texas Auto Towing Service in Sanger about three weeks ago, owner Joe Baker told KXAS.

“This is the very first person I’ve ever lost,” Baker told the Dallas TV station.

The company started a GoFundMe page for Johnson’s family and funeral expenses. The business described him as an intelligent man with “a loving family and an awesome group of friends who will miss him dearly.”

“Zach liked to fish and play in the mud,” the business wrote on the GoFundMe page. “It’s been said that he was always wanting a bigger mud truck.”

A funeral procession set for Friday is expected to include hundreds of tow trucks honoring Johnson, WFAA reported.

“I never thought we’d lose him period, but especially to something like that,” Lee Kennedy, a friend of Johnson’s, told WFAA.

This story was originally published December 5, 2019 at 12:35 PM with the headline "A tow truck driver’s attempt to repossess a $500 car ended with murder, Texas cops say."