Officer Jacob Arellano died in the wrong-way crash, which happened late Tuesday night on Spur 408 in southwest Dallas.
DALLAS — A 31-year-old woman faces a charge of intoxication manslaughter in the wrong-way crash death of a Dallas police officer, police officials announced Friday.
Mayra Rebollar was named as the suspect, according to a police news release.
Officer Jacob Arellano died in the wrong-way crash, which happened late Tuesday night on Spur 408 in southwest Dallas.
Police have said that a woman was driving south in the northbound lanes when she struck Arellano head-on. Arellano was driving to work his shift at the Northwest Patrol Division.
Rebollar, who police say was driving the wrong-way vehicle, was released from the hospital after being treated for her injuries, and was then booked into the Dallas County jail on Monday, Oct. 17, according to records.
The announcement that she faces charges came as Dallas police officers gathered for a procession of Arellano’s body from the Dallas County medical examiner’s office to Restland Funeral Home in Dallas.
Arellano, 25, who had a young son and a girlfriend, died “after a brave fight” in the hospital early Wednesday morning, Dallas police Chief Eddie Garcia tweeted.
Garcia said Arellano suffered head injuries in the crash.
“We’re mourning as a police department,” a tearful Garcia said in a news conference Wednesday afternoon. “This is a tragedy for our department.”
He was in the middle northbound lane while the other driver was going southbound in those same lanes. A police news release said a “preliminary investigation has determined the wrong way driver may have been intoxicated.”
Police said the driver hit the front left side of the officer’s SUV, forcing it to go into the right lane and get hit by a tractor-trailer. The SUV rolled several times before stopping on the right shoulder of Spur 408.
Arellano joined the Dallas Police Department in June 2019, police said. He was assigned to the Northwest Patrol Division.
Garcia at the news conference Wednesday said Arellano’s fellow officers first noticed something was wrong when he didn’t answer during roll call at the start of his shift.