DALLAS COUNTY, Texas — Charges have been dropped against a Mississippi man who was arrested following a hit-and-run crash on I-20 last year and a warrant has been issued for a 22-year-old man in connection with the case, according to the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office.
In Sept. 2023, Officer Darrin McMichael, a 24-year veteran of the Arlington Police Department, was riding his motorcycle on I-20 in eastern Dallas County heading to work when he rear-ended a car in front of him and fell off his bicycle, deputies said. After McMichael fell off his bike another vehicle hit him and kept going.
Joshua Watson, of Jackson Mississippi, was arrested and charged with an accident involving death on Feb. 7 after law enforcement used cell phone tower data to link him to the case, according to an arrest affidavit.
Watson told police during an interview in February that he was in the car, but was adamant that he wasn’t driving, according to the affidavit.
The warrant against Watson was dropped and discharged on Feb. 12 and he was released from the Dallas County Jail, deputies say.
Investigators then linked Ryan Luckett, 22, to the case instead and issued a warrant for him, according to the sheriff’s office. At the time of the warrant, Luckett was in custody at the Hinds County Jail in Jackson Mississippi for parole violations.
He’s since been transferred to the Mississippi Department of Corrections and the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office has a detainer placed on him pending his release from the Mississippi Department of Corrections, deputies say.