There was no room for two Harris County deputies to escape an allegedly drunken driver who hit them head-on late Sunday on the Westpark Tollway, injuring both of them and killing their passenger who was slated to be jailed on suspicion of intoxicated driving.
The ramp was too narrow for the deputies, identified as C. Drake, 34, and P. Zelaya, 36, to veer around a vehicle with Patrick Njogu, 39, behind the wheel and going the wrong way on the eastbound lane, said Sean Teare, head of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office Vehicular Crimes Division. The two vehicles made impact in the 13100 block of the tollway around 11:30 p.m. near Synott.
There was no indication that the wrong-way driver used his brakes, Teare said
“This was a horrific crash,” Teare said. “The deputies literally had no where to go. They had no where to escape. It was a funnel straight to this guy.”
Teare described the other driver, Njogu, as being disoriented after the crash. He was unaware of where he was and asked first responders if he was in Missouri — where he used to live and had garnered at least one drinking while driving conviction.
Njogu has faced at least five driving while intoxicated arrests in Missouri and Illinois, three of which resulted in a conviction, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said in a tweet. He appears to have no criminal history in Harris County or Texas, public records show.
Njogu was believed to have been driving the wrong way on the toll road long enough for at least two people to have called 911 to report him, Teare continued. By the time the Harris County Toll Road Authority could track him down with their cameras and direct police to him, he had crashed into the patrol vehicle.
The wreck was caught on their cameras, Teare said. Investigators hope to find more videos that may point to where Njogu had been drinking before the crash.
Njogu remains in custody at Memorial Hermann while being treated for a leg injury he suffered during the crash. He has since been charged with murder in the prisoner’s death and could face additional charges.