One person was killed and 13 others injured Friday when a stolen big rig smashed through the front of the Department of Public Safety office building in Brenham, Texas.
The DPS for the Southeastern Region of Texas posted an update about the incident on X, saying that one person had died, and two suffered serious injuries.
The driver of the stolen big rig has been identified as 42-year-old Clenard Parker, who has been taken into custody. DPS said Parker had been denied the renewal of his commercial driver’s license on Thursday.
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Police released a mugshot of Parker, whose charges were not disclosed.
During a press conference Friday, Brenham Mayor Atwood Kenjura said the crash had been deliberate, and that Parker had backed up the truck with the intention of ramming it into the building a second time before he was detained, according to the Associated Press.
No DPS staff members were seriously injured, according to a statement from Republican state Senator Lois Kolkhorst. One staff member was briefly trapped in the building.
“This shameful and murderous act will not be tolerated in my hometown or our state,” state Sen. Kolkhorst wrote in a post on X.
News footage from ABC7 Chicago, showed a large red semi-truck with a flatbed, covered in debris in front of a large hole in the crumbling facade of the building.
