TEMPLE, Texas—A Central Texas woman has died after someone dropped a rock from a railroad overpass through the windshield of the car in which she was riding.
The family of five had just visited Keila Ruby Flores’s brother in Round Rock, Texas, and was headed north to Waco on Interstate 35.
Police say Flores, a 33-year-old Waco woman, was in the front passenger seat of the car driven by boyfriend Christopher Rodriguez.
Without warning, a large rock from a railroad track overpass—about the size of a football—smashed into the vehicle’s windshield and hit Flores.
“All of a sudden, something just strikes the window. It’s an explosion,” Rodriguez told KWTX. “I look over and I see Keila and she’s just laying there unresponsive. I’m shaking her, trying to wake her up, but she was unresponsive.”
Flores was taken to the hospital with “significant injuries” and was pronounced dead at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, March 10. No one else in the car was injured.
The incident is being treated as a homicide. Temple police are asking for the public’s help in identifying a suspect in the Saturday night incident on Interstate 35 that fatally injured Flores.
They urge anyone with information about the case to come forward and contact them at (254) 298-5500.
No Suspects
Police say that someone threw the large rock and they are investigating the death as a homicide. Rodriguez told CNN he didn’t see anyone on the overpass because of the dark, and police said they have no suspects.
Two days after her death, Rodriguez remembered Flores for her joy, perpetual smile and as a great mother.
“She worked very hard to provide for her three kids,” he said.
“She was a strong person who always got to the point and never beat around the bush. Always honest and willing to help where she could.”
Rodriguez said he wanted to thank the good Samaritan who offered help immediately after the incident. The stranger got on the phone with the 911 dispatcher as Rodriguez performed CPR and helped Rodriguez stay calm, he said.
“When paramedics arrived that’s when I noticed he was gone,” he told CNN. “I didn’t get his name and I never got to thank him for helping me in that time of need. I just want to thank that individual in person for helping me.”
Not the First Time
In Central Texas, according to KWTX, similar incidents have taken place.
A rock was tossed from an overpass on U.S. Highway 190/Interstate 14 hit a man’s vehicle in June 2017.
Orlando Garcia of Copperas Cove previously said that two boys threw the rock. He wasn’t hurt.
In 2013, two juveniles were arrested in Waco, Texas, after chunks of concrete were thrown from an overpass, damaging eight vehicles. Several people were injured.
The suspects were ages 11 and 13, it was reported.
Original article from 2014 on the Sharon Budd incident:
由 The Daily Item 发布于 2016年8月8日周一
In 2014 in Pennsylvania, Sharon Budd, 53, was seriously injured when a rock smashed through the windshield of her car. She was blinded in one eye, according to reports.
Several teenagers were arrested in the case, reported the Daily Item.
And in Flint, Michigan, 32-year-old Kenneth White, a father of four, was killed after teens threw a six-pound rock from an overpass onto his car in 2017.
Family members remember Kenneth White as a fun-loving family man. They'd also like to see increased safety measures for overpasses.
Mark Sekelsky, 17; Mikadyn Payne, 16; Alexzander Miller, 16; and Trevor Gray, 15; had faced 11 charges as adults, including second-degree murder, reported MSN.com.
They agreed to plead guilty after the murder charge was downgraded to manslaughter in 2018.
“Why him? He was trying so hard to get his life back together and doing so good,” White’s aunt, Nancy Vizcarra, told ABC12.
By Tina Burnside and Eric Levenson
The Epoch Times reporter Jack Phillips and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
