Good Samaritan who pinned down drunk driver after killing Euless cop: “He wasn’t going nowhere”
LAKE WORTH, Texas - A good Samaritan who kept a drunk driver from leaving the scene of a fatal accident says he feels nothing but sympathy for the crash victims.
A Euless police detective was killed in the crash. His wife and children were badly injured.
The man who caused it tried to run, but a witness chased after him and kept him from getting away.
The good Samaritan says it was instinct and adrenaline that caused him to swing into action that day, and he says he's still affected by it.
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Justin Gonzalez is the good Samaritan who pinned down a drunk driver trying to run from the scene of the fatal crash he caused.
"I wanted him down. I wanted him done with. I wanted the cops to be there to get him," he said.
Gonzalez recalls that unfortunate day in 2021.
With a bystander recording, Gonzalez is seen tackling now-convicted felon Dylan Molina and frustratingly cussing him out in the process.
"I’d like to apologize for my language I was using," he said. "At that time, I just blacked out. I had the father instincts, the dad instincts. Because two seconds later, it would’ve been my car."
The video shows the crashed rental Jeep Molina was driving and people trying to break the windows of the sedan he crashed into head-on.
*WARNING: The following video contains foul language.*
FULL VIDEO: Good Samaritan pins down drunk driver trying to run away after killing Euless cop
*WARNING: The following video contains foul language.* One of the videos shows the drunk driver moments after he ran a red light at an intersection and killed an off-duty Euless officer. He tried to run away, but an angry good Samaritan didn't let him leave.
The impact killed the driver, off-duty Euless Police Det. Alex Cervantes. His wife and two young sons who survived were pinned inside.
Gonzalez was traveling right behind Cervantes. He watched the crash in horror and then jumped out and approached Molina, who he says was clearly drunk.
"Something in me was telling me he’s going to run. Something's not right in the situation. I could feel something was not right in the situation," he recalled. "I figured he was still walking behind me. But at that point, it’s when he turned around and started running. At that point when he started running, something clicked again. And I was like what is this man doing? And I just turned around and started going after him."
Molina had consumed nearly eight double vodka Red Bulls before the crash, according to police records. He eventually took a plea deal for intoxication manslaughter and is serving a 15-year sentence.
Now more than a year after the crash, Gonzalez is a father of four, including newborn baby Ariana. He routinely thinks about and prays for the Cervantes family.
Morayma Gonzalez is proud of what her husband did.
"For him to go after someone, you don’t know if he had a knife or a gun or something," she said. "Something could’ve happened to him. So to me, he’s a hero for doing that."
"Now that I’ve talked to a lot of people, they are like were you not scared that he had a weapon? Were you not scared that something could’ve happened?" Gonzalez said. "There was nothing that was going to stop me, weapon, anything. I was putting him down. He wasn’t getting nowhere."
Gonzalez had not seen that video before it was broadcasted on Wednesday. Until then, he says he didn't recall using the foul language in that moment. Again, he says it was the adrenaline that took over.