Deputy Constable Paul Armand approached the black Mazda 626, the Precinct 8 deputy noticed the driver had blood on his face. He also saw that the front windshield was shattered and partially inside the vehicle.The deputy constable then saw a body in the passenger seat, partially underneath the dashboard and with a severed leg.
The driver, James John Onak, 45, told the deputy he didn’t realize a dead body was in the passenger seat,
Police allege Onak struck 32-year-old Fadel Steadman with his car on the Gulf Freeway in southeast Houston and kept on driving for three miles while the man’s body lay in his passenger seat.
Onak was later arrested and charged with felony failure to stop and render aid involving a fatality and driving while intoxicated.
Investigators believe Steadman had pulled his Ford Explorer into the emergency lane on the left side of the freeway near Fuqua after the vehicle broke down.
Witnesses told police Steadman was running back and forth across the freeway when he was struck by the Mazda.
The collision forced Steadman’s body through the windshield, and he landed in the front passenger seat inside the car, police said.
However, Onak did not stop driving. Police said he got off the freeway and drove a few more blocks before he was pulled over by Armand on Kirkvalley near Beamer, police said.
Onak told Armand he thought he had hit something while driving down the Gulf Freeway, but he was not sure
After discovering the body in the seat, Armand called paramedics and additional deputy constables to the scene. While searching the freeway, another deputy constable located the Mazda’s licence plate as well as what appeared to be Steadman’s leg
Source: Houston Chronicle