Texas Crowd Kills Passenger in Vehicle That Hit Child (FoxNews)

Texas Crowd Kills Passenger in Vehicle That Hit Child
Wednesday, June 20, 2007

By Sara Bonisteel

Police were searching Wednesday for more than a dozen people who may have been involved in the beating death of a man who was a passenger in a car that struck and injured a child not far from a Juneteenth celebration in Austin, Texas.

David Rivas Morales died Tuesday from injuries sustained in an assault by an unknown number of black men following the car accident, which occurred in the parking lot of an East Austin apartment complex, police said.

"It doesn't seem to be a hate crime, it really seems to be a spontaneous act resulting from that collision with that child," Harold Piatt, the commander of the Austin Police Department's Robbery Homicide Unit. "We don't know if there were any words exchanged between the driver and the men to start with that escalated this to the assault."

The incident occurred at around 9:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the Booker T. Washington apartments, near Rosewood Park, where the city's Juneteenth celebrations were wrapping up, Piatt said.

The driver of the car carrying Morales struck a 3- or 4-year-old girl, apparently prompting the attack.

"The driver, for whatever reason, whether he realized he was involved in the collision or his vehicle forced a stop, got out of the car, got into a confrontation with several men and was assaulted," Piatt said.

Morales came to his aid and was fatally attacked in what police are calling a "spontaneous homicide." He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

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