Houston Personal Injury Attorneys – Smith & Hassler

A very sad day today for the Beaumont, Texas police department who lost one of their officer last night to a motor vehicle collision with a fleeing suspect. Beaumont P.D. Officer Bryan Mitchell Hebert, aged-36, was getting stop-sticks from the trunk of his patrol car last night when the 30-year old suspect, whose name has not been released, crashed a 2008 Dodge Nitro into the front of Officer Hebert’s patrol car pushing it backward into the officer. Officer Hebert had been with the Beaumont Police Department for 10-years; he passed away at Christus St. Elizabeth Hospital. Police say the suspect had assaulted his elderly grandmother and mother prior to the crash. The suspect will be facing a capital murder charge and if convicted may receive the death penalty. Beaumont P.D.’s press release is here. The last officer from Beaumont P.D. who was killed in the line of duty was patrol officer Lisa Beaulieu, killed by a drunk driver April 27, 2007 while directing traffic at the scene of a freeway accident.

Police were able to quickly identify the year, make and model of a hit-and-run vehicle that struck and killed a female pedestrian trying to cross FM1960 near Aldine Westfield Road around 3:00am Friday July 8, 2011. 52-year old Rosie Mitchell of New Waverly, Texas was struck by a 2008 Nissan Armada that sustained damage to the SUV’s passenger side headlight, which broke off in the collision. Rose was found in cardiac arrest in the roadway and passed away at the scene. Harris County Precinct 4 Constables investigators are working with a Nissan dealership and using part numbers to identify the owner of the vehicle involved and are also checking area businesses to see if the collision was caught on any surveillance cameras.

Click2Houston.com’s report is here and includes video. While Nissan is a popular manufacturer and there are a lot of Nissan vehicles on Houston’s roads, the Nissan Armada doesn’t appear to be a particularly big seller as compared to other full-size SUVs such as the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban or the Ford Expedition. Put another way, there’s not many Nissan Armadas on the road so this one could be easy to spot. Everyone should be on the lookout for a Nissan Armada with damage to the passenger side headlight: if you think you have identified a vehicle matching that description you can call Crime Stoppers at 713 222 TIPS.

With the vehicle owner not yet being identified it is unknown if alcohol was involved, but given that the accident was at 3:00am on a Friday, and that it would be next to impossible for a sober driver to be involved in this accident and not know it had happened, it certainly looks like drunk driving may have played a role.  Either way, any decent person with nothing to hide wouldn’t run down a pedestrian and flee.

A 2008 Nissan Armada - the make and model of vehicle that sustained a broken front passenger side headlight in the hit-and-run collision that killed Rosie Mitchell.

Our sympathies to Rosie Mitchell’s family and friends for this tragic loss. If you, a friend or a family member have been the victim of a motor vehicle accident, Smith & Hassler can help you.