Truck rolls over leg in road rage incident

A man was charged with aggravated assault with serious bodily injury on Friday evening after attacking the driver of a dump truck and pushing him out of the truck’s cab while they were in traffic, according to a police affidavit.

Police responded just before 8 p.m. to the scene of the crash in the 3300 block of E. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, where it narrows from two lanes to one due to road construction.

Police met with Desmond Goston, 23, who told offi- cers he was driving his pickup truck westbound and attempting to merge with thick, slow traffic when a dump truck sideswiped his truck. Goston said he stepped out and climbed into the passenger side of the cab of the dump truck to confront the driver.

Goston and the driver both told police they exchanged blows. When the dump truck driver opened the door to exit the cab, Goston pushed him onto the street, according to the arrest affidavit.

According to the affidavit, the dump truck, in neutral, rolled backwards over the driver’s leg. The driver was taken to the hospital and treated for a dislocated knee and a broken ankle.

Goston’s bail was set at $15,000. Jail records indicate he had been released by Sunday afternoon. familiar with Muslim culture but appreciated seeing his fellow cadets learn.

A few hours earlier, Adeli had volunteered to rake small stones in a Zen garden at the Asian American Resource Center on Cameron Road. Cadets on Friday also visited the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center and watched presentations from Psychiatric Emergency Services and the Mexican Consulate.

Cadet training Sgt. Manuel Jimenez said the immersion program began about a year and a half ago to give cadets a glimpse of the many com- munities they’ll be respon- sible for patrolling.

“Some of these folks have never been around people that might not look like them before,” Jimenez said.

Before the program, Austin police would send cadets out to conduct interviews with different community groups, then have them pres- ent what they had learned to the class. But trainers found this approach could be impersonal, and it had lim- ited impact on cadets since only a few of them would go into each community.

“What we found was that these presentations were more like book reports, and not very informative,” Jimenez said.

Now all cadets visit with different groups and get a chance to ask questions. Jimenez said the visits focus on the city’s largest minority groups, but other stakehold- ers are also brought into the mix each year, including advocates for mental health and homeless people.

“The more positive interaction we as police officers have with the community members, the more those fears get dismissed, and the more bridge building we can accomplish,” Jimenez said.