Police believe road rage caused shooting death on I-20 in Arlington

A potential road rage incident on Interstate 20 in Arlington on Sunday has left a 19-year-old man dead and police seeking a shooter who fled the scene.

Arlington police responded to a major crash about 5:50 p.m. in which a white Ford pickup had lost control and struck a National Tire and Battery sign at 802 West I-20. When officers approached the vehicle, they saw the male driver had suffered a gunshot wound that they determined had occurred before the collision, police said in a statement.

The man was identified as Dylan Spaid, 19, of Grand Prairie, according to the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office.

A woman also in the pickup had suffered injuries from the crash.

“It was later determined that the occupants of the pickup truck had possibly been involved in a road rage incident with another motorist on the freeway,” the statement said.

Investigators believe the pickup entered the eastbound highway lanes at Cooper Street, and a black, four-door passenger sedan with dark-tinted windows pulled alongside the pickup. Someone fired at least one shot through a rolled-down passenger side window, the statement said.

Lt. Chris Cook, a police spokesman, said late Sunday that police now believe the assailant’s car to be a BMW or a Mercedes.

The woman in the pickup, the driver’s girlfriend, said the encounter occurred just as they were turning from Cooper Street onto eastbound I-20, Cook said.

“We don’t know exactly what happened, but it sounds like the drivers might have exchanged some hand gestures,” Cook said. He said there were two witnesses — the girlfriend and a driver who was behind the two vehicles involved in the shooting. That witness said he followed the dark sedan “but lost sight of it at about Collins and I-20,” Cook said.

Witnesses told police there were at least two occupants in the sedan, which continued running eastbound after the shooting. Detectives believe the sedan had “silver rims and low profile, possibly after-market wheels.”

Spaid was pronounced dead at a hospital, and the female passenger was treated at a hospital for other injuries and released.

Anyone who witnessed the incident is asked to contact homicide Det. Steve Greisbach at 817-459-5325. Tipsters also can contact Tarrant County Crime Stoppers at 817-469-8477 and can remain anonymous.

This story was originally published June 25, 2017 at 10:42 PM with the headline "Police believe road rage caused shooting death on I-20 in Arlington."