FORT WORTH, Texas — A North Texas father shared a cell phone video with WFAA from Aug. 19 showing his family in a panic about a car on fire as they drove on the Interstate 35 West Freeway.
It happened in Fort Worth as they returned home from a vacation. They could tell that there was a family trapped inside the burning car. And the man didn't think twice about trying to help out.
"It was too engulfed in flames. I couldn't do anything," the good Samaritan, Mr. Moore, said about what he experienced when he got to the burning car. "After that, I ran over to the Camaro."
Police said it was 19-year-old Eduardo Gonzalez in the Camaro. They eventually learned that Moore found Gonzalez behind the wheel, passed out.
Moore said, "Seeing that he was not alert. But he had beverages in the car, I grabbed one of the beers that he had opened and kind of poured it on him just to see if he would wake up and he did wake up."
WFAA obtained the arrest affidavit for Eduardo Gonzalez, which was put together by the Fort Worth Police Department and submitted to the Tarrant County District Attorney.
In it, a Fort Worth officer asked Gonzalez if he pulled over on the side of the freeway, and he said that he did because he didn't want to crash. However, he did crash, killing five people.
The family identified the victims to WFAA as 48-year-old Willie Gun, his girlfriend Amber Hopewell, and her three children.
In the arrest affidavit, a Fort Worth Firefighter says the driver, a front seat passenger, and three others in the back seat had been completely charred in the ensuing fire and were only recognizable as human bodies.
"Seeing what I saw in the car on fire, it hurt me to my heart," said Moore.
An officer also reported seeing three beer bottles in the left rear passenger area, a cardboard box of beer and an open beer can in the center console. The officer also wrote that he observed Eduardo Gonzalez to have red watery eyes, slurred speech, and an odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from his breath and body.
According to court records, after posting a $150,000.00 bond, Gonzalez is out of jail with conditional driving privileges.
"How did he get a bond?" Moore asked. "And then for him to be able to drive."
That's not only a big concern for some Fort Worth community leaders, but also for the good Samaritan who came to his rescue. Moore shared with WFAA that he and his own family are still traumatized by the entire experience that night. Especially since learning the names of the victims and realizing that he and some of their loved ones are acquaintances.
WFAA reached out to Gonzalez's attorney Thursday morning but has not heard back from him.