Cop flees scene of his DWI crash — then assaults the driver he hit, Texas police say

A Texas police officer is accused of crashing into another car while intoxicated, fleeing the scene, and then assaulting the victim who chased after him.

Officer Dezi Rios, who was off duty and has been with the San Antonio Police Department for 14 years, was charged with driving while intoxicated and failing to stop to give information, following the July crash, court records show.

Police said assault charges could also be brought against Rios, 39, pending further investigation.

According to police documents obtained by McClatchy News, Rios rear-ended 61-year-old Ara Halibian at a red light around 9:45 p.m. on July 5. Rios then maneuvered his vehicle around Halibian’s car and fled the scene.

Halibian followed, documents say, chasing after Rios until the officer hit a curb, popping his front right tire, forcing him to stop.

Halibian got out of his car to confront Rios, asking him why he didn’t stop to trade information. He also tried to take Rios’ keys to prevent him from running away again, the police report said.

Rios reacted by punching him in the face “several times,” according to witnesses who called 911.

Halibian, who works as a security guard, was on the way home from work when Rios crashed into him, he told KENS.

He recounted the alleged beating he took, guessing Rios hit him somewhere between 20 to 25 times, and was “punched, kicked, thrown on the floor … you name it.”

Halibian lost a tooth, suffered a broken nose and fractured eye socket, he told the TV station.

When officers arrived and spoke to Rios, he initially denied that there had been a car accident.

Rios claimed Halibian pointed a gun at him and he acted in self-defense, disarming Halibian and punching him a few times to “get him away,” according to documents.

However, Halibian still had his gun with him in its holster. Rios “could not explain how or why” that was.

His speech was “confused,” his eyes “glossy” and he swayed as he walked, officers noted in a DWI arrest report.

He said he hit his head on the steering wheel when he ran over the curb, and believed he had a head injury.

While being interviewed in the back seat of a squad car, Rios seemed “very cocky,” an officer wrote in the DWI report.

Rios said he didn’t have anything to drink that evening, but admitted taking medication, though he wouldn’t specify what or how much.

Officers determined Rios “had lost the normal use of their mental and physical faculties” and arrested him. Now handcuffed, Rios started shouting at the arresting officer and banging his head on the car window, repeatedly complaining of a head injury, according to the report.

Rios declined to take a blood test but investigators obtained a warrant to conduct one, the report said.

The veteran SAPD officer has a history of road rage, spanning back to 2017, KSAT reported. This latest is his third such incident.

The second came in 2018. Rios got into an argument with another driver in a strip-club parking lot, who accused Rios of cutting him off in traffic, saying “Hey mo--------er, you know you almost got me killed back there,” documents obtained by KSAT show.

Rios responded: “Obviously, I f-----g didn’t because you’re still here.”

Tempers flared and the two men pulled guns on each other and exchanged fire, outlets reported. Rios was shot six times and the other man, Demontae Walker, eight times.

Walker was left paralyzed, and Rios would go on to recover and return to active duty after a 15-day suspension, KENS reported. Rios had drunk several alcoholic beverages prior to the shooting.

The July 5 incident is still under investigation, San Antonio police said.

This story was originally published July 15, 2021 at 3:28 PM with the headline "Cop flees scene of his DWI crash — then assaults the driver he hit, Texas police say."