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A 23-year-old Arlington man with a prior DWI conviction was drunk, police say, when he hit and killed a mother of six who had stopped to help a disabled vehicle.
Austin Churkey swerved off the road and hit Asheta Goins-Holbrook, 42, who had stepped out of her vehicle to help her sister, who was experiencing car trouble on Interstate 20 about 12:30 a.m. Thursday.
Goins-Holbrook was pinned between the two parked vehicles as her teenage daughter looked on in horror.
“She's just the sweetest person in the world. She just helps everybody all the time,” said husband Harold Holbrook.
Holbrook said the family had only lived in Arlington about a year and a half moving here to get away from Philadelphia.
In 2015, Churkey, who was 21 at the time, was charged and later convicted for DWI. He was fined $395 and his probation just ended Aug. 25.
“We actually had someone call in to report a reckless driver and while that caller was reporting this information to our 911 dispatch, the caller observed the car accident,” said Sgt. Vanessa Harrison, Arlington Police Dept.
Churkey has been charged with intoxication manslaughter and has bonded out of jail.