Texas: Video shows officer hit by car in DWI case
An El Paso police officer suffered minor injuries Friday morning after pulling a drunken-driving suspect out of the way of a patrol vehicle that had just been struck by another drunken-driving suspect, authorities said.Officer Andy Rodriguez, a 23-year veteran of the Police Department assigned to the DWI Task Force, was conducting a field sobriety test at 2:58 a.m. in the 11200 block of Montana Avenue on a driver involved in an earlier collision
Police said video from Rodriguez’s patrol car shows him conducting the test when a 2009 Nissan Cube driven by another drunken-driven suspect, 23-year-old Sherry Lorraine Rodriguez, strikes the patrol car of an assisting officer, sending it toward Rodriguez and the first suspect. The officer is shown grabbing the first suspect’s arm and pulling him out of the way of the vehicle when he is then struck by the crashed patrol car, a 2014 Dodge Charger, sending him into the air, then falling to the ground.
"If you look at the video, he didn't hesitate. He didn't give it a second thought. His own safety was the least of his concerns at the moment. He was concerned for the welfare of the person he was dealing with," Enrique Carrillo, the El Paso Police Department's public information officer, said at a news conference Friday afternoon at police headquarters.
The officer suffered only minor injuries and was released from the hospital later Friday morning, police said.
The first drunken-driving suspect was uninjured. Both drivers were charged with DWI and booked into the El Paso County Jail, police said.
Jail records show Sherry Lorraine Rodriguez posted a $2,500 bond and was released Friday.
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