Man arrested in Arlington hit-and-run crash that killed 21-year-old Marine reservist
A 26-year-old man has been arrested in connection with a hit-and-run crash that killed a North Texas Marine Corps reservist on Interstate 20 in June, officials said.
Josue Rodriguez was arrested Tuesday in Fort Worth, Arlington police said in a news release. He faces a charge of collision involving death.
Areauna Laws, of DeSoto, was on her way to drills the morning of June 23 when she experienced car trouble, police said. She stopped on the westbound shoulder of I-20 near Matlock Road. A pickup truck struck and killed the 21-year-old when she exited her vehicle.
Witnesses described seeing a tan 1975 Chevrolet Cheyenne pickup driving erratically and veering onto the shoulder before hitting Laws, police said. Then the pickup drove over the median and onto the I-20 frontage road.
Officers found the vehicle abandoned in a shopping center parking lot near the accident scene.
Rodriguez, the registered owner of the pickup, initially denied being involved in the hit-and-run, according to the release. He told police he’d attended a party in Benbrook the previous night and left his vehicle outside the venue.
Surveillance footage from nearby businesses shows a person parking the Chevrolet at the venue and getting out, the release states. A few hours later, the same individual, believed to be Rodriguez, gets back in the pickup and drives away.
Cell phone records also show Rodriguez made several calls near the scene of the accident, both before and after the crash, according to the release.
Law enforcement officers from the U.S. Marshals North Texas Fugitive Task Force located Rodriguez in Fort Worth on Tuesday and took him into custody without incident, police said.
Rodriguez is currently being held in the Tarrant County Jail on a $40,000 bond, according to court records.
Laws’ father, Lawrence, told the Star-Telegram a short time after the accident that his daughter loved the color green and watching tadpoles grow into frogs in a pond on the family’s land.
The 21-year-old was engaged to be married and considered the Marine Corps her second family. She was buried with full military honors June 28.
“If I could talk to that person, I would say we found you, and we are going to have justice for my Areauna and for every Areauna that is out there that has ever been raped, abused, murdered, or kidnapped using our sacred highways,” Lawrence Laws said.
