AUSTIN, Texas — A driver arrested in connection to a deadly hit-and-run in Downtown Austin was allegedly fleeing from police, according to court documents obtained by KVUE.
The documents state that a pair of Austin Police Department (APD) officers were on patrol downtown early Tuesday morning. The officers saw a car in a parking lot and said that the people inside were involved in alleged drug activity and violent crimes. The car then left the parking lot, and officers noticed it had a faulty headlight.
The documents state that the officers attempted a traffic stop, but as the officers approached the car, it drove off and continued eastbound on East Seventh Street. The driver – later identified as 23-year-old Tyrone Thompson – continued to evade officers, running red lights in the process.
One of those red lights was at East Seventh and Red River streets, where the car hit two pedestrians in the crosswalk at around 1 a.m. One of the victims, 26-year-old Cody Shelton, died at the scene. Police said the second victim remains in critical condition.
Roughly an hour later, court documents show that Thompson was involved in a separate crash on Wolfe Lane in Del Valle. Deputies from the Travis County Sheriff's Office and the Bastrop County Sheriff's Office responded to the crash.
A Bastrop County deputy said when they arrived at the scene, Thompson got out of the car's driver's seat. A Travis County deputy reported that when they attempted to conduct a field investigation, Thompson was noncompliant. The deputy also reported that they could smell alcohol on Thompson's breath and that Thompson was swaying and overexaggerating his movements.
The court documents state that Thompson claimed he hadn't been driving the car and his mother had just dropped him off. But when the Travis County deputy called Thompson's mother, she did not corroborate his claims.
The Travis County deputy reported that based on Thompson's behavior and his performance on a field sobriety test, he was intoxicated. When the deputy attempted to arrest Thompson for DWI, he began pulling away, kicking and hitting the deputies, according to the documents.
With the help of three deputies and three firefighters, Thompson was eventually handcuffed. But as authorities attempted to put Thompson in a patrol unit, he continued to resist, pushing back against the deputies and putting his foot against the unit's frame to avoid being placed inside.
Deputies later found a bottle of tequila in the passenger floorboard of Thompson's car and a loaded gun in the backseat. Court documents also state that it's believed Thompson was under the influence of methamphetamine and/or crack cocaine, in addition to alcohol.
Thompson was booked into the Travis County Jail, where he remains as of Thursday morning. He is facing five charges: accident involving death, a second-degree felony; obstruction or retaliation, a third-degree felony; driving while intoxicated, a Class B misdemeanor; and resisting arrest and unlawful carry of a weapon, both Class A misdemeanors.