Odessa Teen Killed During High-Speed Pursuit
By: Jay Plyburn
Updated: July 20, 2010
A high-speed chase Sunday morning ends with one person dead and two behind bars. Big 2 sat down with Ector County Sheriff Mark Donaldson to try and piece it all together.
It began with a party in Ector County that lasted into the early hours of Sunday morning. It ended with sheriff's deputies pursuing a pickup truck, but rather than pulling over...the truck crashed into a fence. Now, one Odessa teenager is dead and Donaldson says it all could have been avoided.
The fence is now mangled and completely destroyed, and it serves as a reminder of a high-speed chase that ended with tragedy. It all started around 5:30 Sunday morning when sheriff's deputies were called out to Damascus Avenue in reference to a disturbance call.
"Officers went there and while they were talking to the complainants, this pickup drove by and they said that was the ones that were causing the disturbance," Donaldson said.
The vehicle sped away and one of the deputy's began a pursuit.
"[He] turned on his lights and siren, and they apparently took off...trying to get away from him. They made two or three turns different places, and at one point the pickup lost control," Donaldson said.
The pursuit ended in the 13,500 block of Triple Crown. As of Monday, the aftermath could still be seen of the nasty accident that ended up killing an Odessa teen.
"About 5:50 we woke up because we just heard about three big sounds...just like a big ole' shotgun. Just BAM, BAM, BAM...and it kind of jerked us up. So we got up and we ran to the door,” Joseph Roe, who lives next door to where the crash happened, said.
Roe and his wife could hear the sirens, but they couldn't see what was going on. He said they continued listening and eventually heard someone screaming out.
"A kid or a woman...we couldn't recognize the voice. But what really got our attention is that we heard three screams of 'MOM' and we started freaking out a little bit because we thought it was our kids," Roe said.
But it wasn't their kids. It was, quite possibly, the 16-year-old boy who's body was later found under the truck.
"I wish the kid driving the pickup would have stopped before it got started. All they had to do was just stop," Donaldson said.
The driver has been identified as 21-year-old Alonso Rodriguez, whom has been charged with felony evading. The passenger has been identified as 17-year-old Alfonso Rodriguez, whom has been charged with misdemeanor evading. The Department of Public Safety is still investigating the death of the 16-year-old passenger.
