Hit-and-run suspect 26-year-old Joshua Quintario Watson was found and arrested in Mississippi after a three-month-long search.
The Dallas County Sheriff's Office, together with Arlington Police, were able to arrest Watson and charge him with a 2nd Degree Felony, Accident Involving Death in the hit-and-run incident that killed an Arlington police officer back in September.
An off-duty Arlington Police officer died in a crash while riding to work on September 21. The officer was headed west on I-20 near the 175 interchange in southeast Dallas County just after 6 a.m.
The Dallas County Sheriff's Department says the officer was riding to work on his motorcycle. The department says traffic started slowing down in front of the officer, and the officer "bumped" the car in front of him.
"The rider fell off to the left-hand side of the motorcycle," says the Sheriff's Department's Doug Sisk. "At that point in time, a dark-colored Dodge-Chrysler-type vehicle ran over the individual and then continued westbound on I-20."
Sisk says the other car drove off.
"If the driver's listening, and he or she knows they were involved in an accident, please contact the Dallas County Sheriff's Department," he said.
The sheriff's department wanted to hear from anyone who might have been in the area at the time and saw the crash or has dashboard video that might show more about the other car involved.
"Any of that will help us on the investigation part of it," Sisk said.
Arlington Police have confirmed Officer Darrin McMichael died at the hospital. They say McMichael had been with the department 24 years and was assigned to the motorcycle unit the past 13 years.
"Officer Darrin McMichael was a respected and beloved member of our APD family," Chief Al Jones wrote in a statement. " We are heartbroken and we are hurting. This is a devastating loss that will be felt for a long time. Please pray for his wife, who is also an APD employee, his family, his friends, and his APD family. They need all the support they can get right now.”
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