AUSTIN, Texas — Two National Guard soldiers were involved in a car crash early Monday morning in south Texas that killed the passenger. When the driver could not save his fellow soldier, he shot himself dead at the scene, local police said.
Dawit Befakadu Girma, 21, was driving the white Ford F150 and Daniel Luis Molina, 27, was in the passenger seat when the truck rolled over near Laredo at about 1:30 a.m. near Texas State Highway Loop 20, said Officer J. Espinoza, spokesman for the Laredo Police Department. Molina was thrown from the vehicle during the crash.
An investigation into what caused the truck to rollover continues, he said.
Other people on the road stopped to help and told police that Girma attempted to save Molina’s life with CPR. When he couldn’t, he took a handgun from his waistband and shot himself dead. Both men were taken to a hospital where they were pronounced dead, Espinoza said.
Both men were from San Antonio, he said. Police called a supervisor from the Texas National Guard to the scene who notified the soldiers’ families.
The Texas Military Department confirmed two of its soldiers died Monday near Laredo but did not release any information about the soldiers. The soldiers were assigned to Operation Lone Star, a state-sponsored mission to deter criminal activity between ports of entry and the U.S. border with Mexico.
The accident was non-mission related, according to the Texas Military Department.
(Texas National Guard)
