Murphy police arrested 21-year-old Aaron N. Hunter Wednesday in connection with the deaths of two people killed in a road rage-related car crash, police say.
Police said Hunter and another driver, 20-year-old Justin Williford, were speeding and recklessly weaving their vehicles through traffic on May 9 at about 5:15 p.m. along Farm-to-Market Road 544 west of Brand Road.
The drivers came close to crashing into each other when they each tried to pass the other in the same lane, police said. Williford took evasive action, lost control of his vehicle and crashed near the intersection at Brand Road.
"These road rage incidents can get out of hand in a New York second and that's exactly what happened in this case," Murphy Police Chief G.M. Cox said after Wednesday's arrest.
None of the occupants of Williford's vehicle were wearing seat belts, and all were ejected. Williford and a passenger, 20-year-old Thomas Allen Jr., were killed. Another passenger, 20-year-old Brandon Young, survived but remains hospitalized in serious condition.
Police said in a news release Wednesday that the incident began as a "road rage episode," but didn't elaborate on what specifically led to that designation.
Crash scene investigators are still trying to confirm the speed of Williford's vehicle at the time of the crash, but officials did say that speed appears to have been a factor.
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Hunter was arrested Wednesday without incident on two charges of criminally negligent homicide, state jail felonies and one charge of accident involving an injury, a third-degree felony. He is being held on $90,000 bond.
A wave of friends and family members of the young men killed in the crash returned to the scene Wednesday evening, immediately after Williford's funeral.
News of the arrest brought comfort to some.
"I mean it's justice. Nobody deserves what happened," friend Deonte Harrison said.
But Williford's mother, Timi Baird, said she felt none of that satisfaction.
Instead she felt sorry for the mother of the accused.
"I don't even want to think about that because I know as a mother, I know as a mother what she's going through. That her child is gonna be taken away from her. She can't hold her son right now [like] I can no longer hold my son," Baird said. "Does it hurt me that he took my child's life? Yes. But my son could have easily have taken his life. So I forgive him. I forgive him. I forgive him."
Hunter is currently being held at the Collin County Detention Facility.
NBC 5's Ben Russell contributed to this report.
