SAN ANTONIO – Update (6:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 6): Balcones Heights Police Chief John Jahanara said a man believed to be the girl’s uncle was detained shortly after the crash but was later released.
That man, police said, was not involved in the incident.
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“He was identified by a witness as one of the suspects that fled from the crash,” Jahanara told KSAT on Wednesday morning. “After further questioning by our detectives, it was found he was not involved.”
The girl’s father, Wilmer Rene Aguilar-Orellana, 24, was booked into the Bexar County Jail.
Original: Police in Balcones Heights say they have detained a man who they believe left a 5-year-old girl behind following a car crash.
Officers who responded to the single-vehicle rollover crash on Interstate 10 near Crossroads around 7 a.m. Tuesday found out from witnesses about the unusual circumstances involving the child.
They say witnesses told them right after the crash, they noticed two men pulling the child from the wreckage.
Police say they handed the little girl to a stranger, telling that person to take her to a hospital, and then ran away.
Officers were able to question the girl, who identified the men as her father and uncle, and told them they were taking her to school at the time of the crash.
Balcones Heights police say they later found and detained the girl’s father, identified as Wilmer Rene Aguilar-Orellana, 24.
He will be charged with child endangerment, child abandonment and failure to stop and render aid, according to BHPD Chief John Jahanara.
They say the girl was checked out at a hospital and is expected to be OK.
Police were working to find other relatives who could take custody of her.
They say they still don’t know the cause of the crash or why the men ran from the scene.
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