Police said a 32-year-old man faces a felony charge after he struck another vehicle in College Station and was caught driving drunk with a young child in the car.
Bryan resident Marcial Lujan Zarate was arrested Sunday on a charge of DWI with a child under 15 years old, a state jail felony punishable by up to two years in jail and a fine up to $10,000.
Police said they responded to a report of a hit-and-run wreck in the area of Harvey Mitchell Parkway and Wellborn Road at 1:30 p.m. A driver reported being rear-ended by Zarate, and said he was following Zarate, who had a young child in the back seat and was driving erratically while crossing the center stripe into oncoming traffic several times, according to a police report.
An officer caught up with Zarate and watched Zarate turn left onto Valley View Drive then drive on the wrong side of the road before pulling over in the 2700 block of Texas Avenue, according to a police report.
Zarate, who told the officer he had drank four beers, performed poorly on sobriety tests, according to the report. A breath test at the College Station Jail later showed he was more than twice over the legal blood alcohol limit, police said.
His five-month-old daughter was in a child seat that was not strapped onto the back seat of the vehicle, police said. His girlfriend, the child's 29-year-old mother, was in the front passenger seat, and was able to get a passerby to drive her and her baby -- once the child seat was properly secured -- since she did not have a driver's license, according to the report.
Zarate remained jailed Monday in lieu of $8,000 bail, along with an immigration hold.
The below map shows police calls reported by the College Station Police Department each day from 6 a.m. to 6 a.m. (indicated by blue markers), police calls reported by the Bryan Police Department daily from 12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. (indicated by yellow markers), as well as incidents reported by The Eagle in Bryan, College Station and surrounding areas (indicated by red markers). Click on individual incidents or markers for details.
Editor's Note: The Eagle has produced this map based on information provided by the College Station and Bryan Police Departments. The map does not include all calls for service and the information is preliminary. Data provided by the police department may not accurately reflect the nature of the calls, and the status of reported incidents may change after further investigation. Locations are approximate.
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