Hit-and-run suspect arrested

A San Antonio man arrested Saturday is accused of fleeing from a collision that left one person dead and three injured last month.

Benito Almaguer III, 43, was charged with failure to stop and render aid resulting in death along with three charges related to the other injured people.

Police were called on Oct. 18 to the 3000 block of Northwest Loop 410, where they found a Chevrolet Trailblazer that crashed into the center concrete median. Investigators soon learned that the Trailblazer had been struck on the right rear by a Ford F-150 that drove away after the crash, an affidavit supporting Almaguer’s arrest said.

A passenger in the Trailblazer, 55-year-old Juan Escamilla Jr., suffered head trauma and died at the scene. The other three people in the Trailblazer suffered minor injuries.

Video footage from the scene captured an image of the Ford’s license plates as it was leaving. Officers searched in the direction that witnesses saw the truck drive toward and found the pickup abandoned in the parking lot of the Colonnade shopping center on Interstate 10, about 5 miles away.

The Ford had a flat tire, and there was a jack underneath the truck when officers found it. Crime scene investigators took the jack to swab for DNA, the documents said.

After the crash, two witnesses told police that they picked up Almaguer from the shopping center parking lot the night of the crash. Almaguer allegedly told them he was in the crash.

Almaguer was held on $35,000 bail for the four charges. He has since been released from the Bexar County Jail on bond.