HOUSTON – A Houston man said he was forced to take matters into his own hands Saturday after spotting a person driving erratically in the River Oaks neighborhood.
Alejandro Fernandez Favreau said he was showing his visiting family around the city when he spotted a car that had been involved in a crash and whose driver was swerving, according to a post on his Facebook page.
Favreau said he began following the vehicle, and the driver stopped at a restaurant. He said he called the police, but as he was leaving, he noticed the driver get back in his car to leave, too.
Favreau said he decided to follow the car again, which is when his brother-in-law started recording video of the incident.
The video, which was posted to several social media sites, showed the driver of a white Ford Mustang with significant front-end damage swerving all over the road, running red lights and making dangerous turns. At one point, it appears as if the driver was losing control of the vehicle.
So I was showing my family around, they were here visiting from Venezuela, when we saw a guy driving like crazy, most...
Posted by Alejandro Fernandez Favreau on Monday, July 24, 2017
The driver eventually pulled into the parking lot of a grocery store, the video showed. That was when Favreau decided he had to do something.
"(The) parking lot was full of people, many of (whom) were children,” Favreau wrote in his Facebook post. “We had to act (quickly) to stop the guy before something bad happened.”
Favreau said that as he approached the vehicle, the driver began backing the vehicle away and crashed into another vehicle that was behind him. He said that he tried to open the door, but it was locked.
“Luckily, he opened the window and I went in, put the car in park and opened the door,” Favreau wrote. “I saw him trying to reach to put the car into gear, so I had to pull him out of the car.”
The video showed Favreau struggle briefly with the driver before the man is pulled out of the car. Favreau then detains the man until police arrive.
Favreau said that he has received criticism for his actions, but he said he just wanted to keep someone from getting hurt.
“I thought of two really good friends of mine that are now dead,” Favreau wrote. “One because he drove while really drunk, and he crashed and died; and the other one, a few years later, died because he got hit by a drunk driver.”
Police identified the accused driver as Sirkon Ash, 28, of Houston. He was charged with driving while intoxicated. He was released from jail on $10,000 bond.
Records showed this was Ash's third time being charged with DWI. He was convicted on two prior charges -- the first in Austin in 2012 and the second in Houston in 2014.
