New documents revealed Wednesday that alcohol played a role in the accident that took 18 year-old Jonathan Pesqueda’s life in August. Police say the suspect, 26 year-old Alexander May, had a blood alcohol level of almost three times the legal limit.
A surveillance camera at the Science Spectrum that faced the South Loop caught the suspect’s car traveling more than 88 miles per hour, heading westbound in the eastbound lane.
This is where TABC Major Mark Menn said his investigation begins.
“We have a very unique job as a law enforcement and regulatory agency.”
Police believed May and a passenger were bar-hopping down Broadway before the accident.
“Even though we don’t make the case, ‘They sold alcohol to this person causing the crash,’ we’re still going to follow up, and we’re going to do an undercover operation at this place and see in real life what they are doing,” Menn said.
Menn said TABC often works with the Lubbock Police Department and other law enforcement agencies on cases similar to this one.
“We’ll obtain anything they obtained during crash scene investigation, such as cash register receipts, statements from witnesses, or the driver.”
They’ll ask hard questions, like how long the suspect was at a licensed TABC location, and how much they had to drink there.
Officers on scene reported finding cocaine inside May’s car, another variable Menn said makes it more difficult to determine whether or not the bar was at fault, in addition to a large gap of time.
“We didn’t find enough evidence to penalize those locations for over-serving the suspect in this case.”
