SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio police said it used a Taser on a man on Friday after a deadly hit-and-run crash that left three people dead, one person hospitalized and two people arrested.
The incident all stemmed from the fatal crash and SAPD is at the center of how it all ended.
Authorities said a man was driving aggressively at a “high rate of speed,” which led to the man colliding with two other vehicles on Friday morning near U.S. Highway 281 and Roosevelt Avenue.
Officers said the man rear-ended one vehicle, killing three people inside. A fourth person, who was the driver of the third vehicle, was sent to the hospital.
San Antonio police said the man who caused the fatal crash left the scene, but authorities quickly located him and took him into custody.
The fatal crash caused traffic, which witnesses told KSAT, led to a second crash. According to witnesses, the second crash happened after a group of teenagers attempted to get around the traffic from the initial deadly crash.
Witnesses said a man, who was involved in the second crash, tried to talk to the group of teenagers.
It is unclear what happened in the moments after that since SAPD and witnesses at the scene have told KSAT two different versions of the story.
It is also unclear what happened to the teenagers at the scene after the man attempted to talk to them.
SAPD said officers got the man “out of the vehicle” and that he “began to fight with officers.” The department also alleged that the man “assaulted multiple officers.”
However, witnesses at the scene said the man did not fight the officers.
“He was just an innocent bystander that was standing, looking at the accident,” one woman told KSAT. “The beating that he got was unnecessary because there was five, six, seven cops beating him.”
“I don’t think that was right,” witness Eduardo Hernandez said.
Hernandez said he saw the second incident and the interaction between the San Antonio police officers. Authorities said they used a Taser on the man.
“Know that there was (sic) four officers on one guy, and then the ones that actually did the accident are gone. They’re free now; they left,” Hernandez said.
The man who police “deployed their taser at” was taken into custody. The group of people involved in both incidents has not been identified.
SAPD sent the following statement regarding the altercation with the second man.
“There was a separate accident in the vicinity of the major accident in which the suspect in that accident attempted to flee the scene while officers were conducting their investigation. Officers stopped the suspect and were able to get him out of the vehicle; however, the suspect began to fight with officers and assaulted multiple officers. The officers then deployed their taser at the suspect and took him into custody. Hope this helps.”
KSAT requested information about the second man. However, SAPD said his information is unavailable at this time.
Authorities said the case is an active and ongoing investigation.
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