SAN ANTONIO – A driver who had been watching a big rig as it traveled for miles along Interstate 35 shortly before it crashed near downtown described it as “erratic.”
Molly Mogford said she began following the 18-wheeler near San Marcos early Tuesday after her own close encounter with it.
“He came into my lane, probably about a foot from hitting me, and he kept going,” she said. “He was driving very erratic.”
Man found dead inside truck had been shot, police say
Mogford was just finishing a long drive from California, heading to her Northwest Side home around 3 a.m.
She called 9-1-1.
Then instead of traveling her normal route, she said she decided to follow the truck as it headed toward downtown, to make sure no one got hurt.
“He went through these two red lights,” she said as she pointed past the intersection of Austin and Casa Blanca streets where the crash happened. “I mean, he was still going about 80, between 80 and 90 the entire time.”
When Mogford caught up to the truck, she found it on its side and a man inside who appeared to be dead.
Police later confirmed that he had suffered a gunshot wound at some point.
They said other witnesses told them they saw a second man get out of the truck and run away.
Investigators were not able to say right away whether the man who was killed was the driver or a passenger.
They said the medical examiner will determine whether he died as a result of the gunshot wound or the crash itself.
“It was very crazy. The whole thing was crazy,” Mogford said, in reaction to what she had witnessed.
What is even more unusual, police said, is that the big rig may have been involved in another murder overnight in Comal County.
A sergeant at the scene said he had been in communication with detectives in that area who would determine whether there is a connection.