Austin police discover Mitsubishi Mirage driver was fatally shot before violent highway car crash
Police in Austin, Texas, were responding to reports of a stalled vehicle on I-35 when the emergency call updated to include a car crash. A Ford Bronco had slammed into the stalled Mitsubishi Mirage. However, after first responders pulled the Mirage driver from the crash, they discovered he had been shot before the wreck.
Austin police say the Mitsubishi Mirage driver was fatally shot before the highway car crash with a much larger Ford Bronco
47-year-old Edward Espino was sitting in his stalled Mitsubishi Mirage in the left lane of I-35. Now, if you’ve been to Austin, Texas, you know that I-35 is a bit of a pain, even without an inoperable vehicle in the left lane. As such, it wasn’t long before another vehicle struck the small, stationary hatchback.
To make matters worse, the vehicle that rear-ended the little Mirage was a Ford Bronco, a significantly larger SUV. Still, Espino wasn’t in the car for long. First responders arrived and pulled him out of the mangled Mirage to render first aid. That’s when emergency medical personnel noticed it: Espino had been shot. They pronounced Espino dead after the wreck.
“The initial investigation showed that Mr. Espino was in his Mitsubishi Mirage and driving northbound on IH 35 where his vehicle came to a stop in the far left lane before being struck from behind by the Bronco,” the Austin Police Department disclosed in a statement. Authorities turned their attention to the Bronco driver.
According to the Austin Police Department, the Bronco driver likely wasn’t “connected to the homicide.” However, police investigators say that road rage may have been the cause of the highway shooting. Police encourage anyone with information pertaining to the shooting to come forward.
Unfortunately, road rage shootings are more commonplace than you might think. According to data from the US Census, Gun Violence Archive, and NHTSA, Houston leads the country in road rage incidents. Worse yet, the Texas city’s “shooting score,” meaning the likelihood of a gun violence event on the road, is the highest of the top 10 most road rage-prone cities in America.
