Man Beaten to Death After Vehicle Hits Child

AUSTIN, Texas - Police pleaded for witnesses who saw an angry mob fatally attack a man in a car that struck and injured a toddler.

Police said Thursday they had no additional information in the investigation into the death of David Rivas Morales, who had been defending the driver from a crowd beating.

Morales, 40, was riding in a car that entered an apartment complex parking lot Tuesday and struck 2-year-old Michael Hosea Jr., police said. The boy was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.The driver got out of the car to check on the
child and was confronted by several people, Police Commander Harold
Piatt said. When they attacked the driver, Morales got out of the car
to protect the driver and was attacked as well. No guns or knives were
used, police said.

The driver got away and is cooperating with investigators.

There
were conflicting accounts of how many people were in the area. Police
originally estimated 2,000 to 3,000 and a woman who lives at the
complex said hundreds who had been at a Juneteenth festival filled the
parking lot and street.

But
late Wednesday, police spokeswoman Toni Chovanetz said witnesses
reported that four or five men attacked Morales, knocking him to the
ground and hitting him.

Police: No connection to Juneteenth
Chovanetz
also said there was no connection to the nearby city-sponsored festival
for Juneteenth, which commemorates Texas slaves getting the word that
they had been freed.

Margaret
Morales said a young boy came to her door to tell her that her brother
was lying on the ground outside. She found David Morales, sprawled on
the pavement 100 feet from her town house, battered and choking on
blood.

She said her mother came running after hearing her screams, but police wouldn’t let either of them get close to him.

Police
arrived one minute after receiving a 911 call, by which time the
beating had stopped, Chovanetz said. But the Morales family complained
that medical help was slow in coming.

David
Morales arrived at the hospital about 35 minutes after the 911 call was
received, said Warren Hassinger, Austin-Travis County Emergency
Services spokesman. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.