Road rage chase ends in crash, killing newlywed on way to pick up wife, Texas cops say
A 22-year-old man was on the way to pick up his wife when he became the victim of a fatal road rage incident he wasn’t involved in, Texas police and the man’s family say.
Roberto Carlos Rios Rodriguez was behind the wheel of his SUV when a pickup truck crashed into him head-on, at about 6:10 p.m. March 26, the San Juan Police Department told KVEO.
When officers arrived at the scene, police say Rodriguez was already dead, and the man who hit him was taken to a hospital for treatment, KRGV reported.
“I am dead inside, they killed my son,” Rodriguez’ mother, Maribel Rodriguez, told the station during a memorial for her son. “It is the biggest pain you can feel. I don’t wish it upon anyone.”
Rodriguez had been married to his wife Alondra Castillo for just four months, she told the outlet. He was on his way to pick her up from work when it happened, when their plans of starting a family, of living their lives together, were suddenly ended.
“I can’t sleep, I feel like Robert is talking to me,” she told the station “I hear his voice in my head all the time.”
While investigators initially thought the truck may have been racing someone when it lost control, they later discovered it was road rage that led to the deadly collision, KVEO reported.
Two days after the crash, officers arrested Roberto Victor Sotullo, the driver of a third vehicle that hadn’t been at the scene, police told the station.
Sotullo told investigators that he had been fleeing from a white Chevrolet Silverado, at speeds of 109-mph, when the truck chasing him crashed into an SUV, the outlet reported. He said he felt “relieved” at the sight of the wreck, then drove home, according to police.
He told police he was aware someone had died in the crash, the station reported.
Sotullo was jailed on March 29 on charges including collision involving death, evading arrest and criminal trespass, records show. His bond is set at $286,000.
Officials did not say what caused the road rage incident.
San Juan is a roughly 240-mile drive south from San Antonio.
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