Intoxicated man seen in restaurant prior to hitting, killing Texas police officer
Surveillance video from a Lake Worth Fuzzy's Tacos shows an intoxicated Dylan Molina. Shortly after, Molina hits and kills police detective Alex Cervantes.
A Texas Good Samaritan is being credited for tackling and pinning down a drunk driver who allegedly killed a Texas police officer. The Good Samaritan, identified as Justin Gonzalez, credits adrenaline and instinct for helping him bring the perpetrator into police custody.
"I wanted him down. I wanted him done with. I wanted the cops to be there to get him," Gonzalez told FOX 4.
Dylan Molina, 26, being held to the ground by a good Samaritan after fleeing a DUI crash (Lake Worth Police Department)
Texas police released video of Dylan Molina, 26, fleeing the scene of a crash that killed a police detective (Lake Worth Police Department)
Gonzalez recalled to FOX 4 Dallas the incident involving off-duty Euless Police Detective Alex Cervantes. The Nov. 2021 surveillance video shows the aftermath of the fatal crash where 26-year-old Dylan Molina drunkenly plowed his rented Jeep at a high rate of speed into a white sedan in a Lake Worth, Texas, intersection.
The white sedan was driven by Cervantes, who was off-duty at the time of the collision. The police officer died at the scene while his wife and two boys were injured.
Gonzalez was traveling right behind Cervantes, and he watched the crash in horror. Following the crash, Gonzalez sprang into action, jumped out of his vehicle and quickly approached Molina. Gonzalez recalled to FOX 4 that Molina was clearly intoxicated.
"Something in me was telling me he’s going to run. Something's not right in the situation. I could feel something was not right in the situation," he recalled to FOX 4. "I figured he was still walking behind me. But at that point, it’s when he turned around and started running. At that point when he started running, something clicked again. And I was like what is this man doing? And I just turned around and started going after him."
In the surveillance video, Gonzalez is seen tackling Molina to the ground while yelling a string of profanities at the drunken offender while pinning him to the ground.
"I’d like to apologize for my language I was using," Gonzalez shared with FOX 4. "At that time, I just blacked out. I had the father instincts, the dad instincts. Because two seconds later, it would’ve been my car."
Morayma Gonzalez shared with FOX 4 how proud she is of her husband actions.
"For him to go after someone, you don’t know if he had a knife or a gun or something," she told FOX 4. "Something could’ve happened to him. So to me, he’s a hero for doing that."
Dylan Molina, 26, eventually took a plea deal for intoxication manslaughter and is serving a 15-year sentence. (Lake Worth Police Department)
"Now that I’ve talked to a lot of people, they are like were you not scared that he had a weapon? Were you not scared that something could’ve happened?" Gonzalez said. "There was nothing that was going to stop me, weapon, anything. I was putting him down. He wasn’t getting nowhere."
Local bartender Cala Richardson was recently arrested in connection with the fatal crash, and is facing a misdemeanor charge of allegedly over serving alcohol to Molina before the crash.
It is believed that Richardson served Molina eight double vodka Red Bull cocktails, 16 single shots, on the Saturday morning before the crash, local station KDFW-TV reported.
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Molina eventually took a plea deal for intoxication manslaughter and is serving a 15-year sentence.
