A teenager accused of murder in a traffic crash that claimed the life of a 57-year-old Navy veteran last fall is scheduled to go on trial in July.
Joseph Bustamante, 19, was being cited for alcohol possession charges at the Northside Independent School District's Gustafson Stadium on the night of Sept. 13, 2013.
"As they were processing him he was allowed to go to his truck to retrieve some materials or papers or whatever, and he bolted," said Pasqual Gonzalez Northside School District's Director of Communications. "He got in his truck and bolted out of the parking lot."
District police and officers from the San Antonio Police Department gave chase.
Bustamante crashed into a concrete pillar and street sign a few miles away on Culebra Road and Micron. The sign struck a motorcycle driven by Edward Perez.
Perez – a Navy veteran - died from his injuries two weeks later.
His family has filed a $1 million wrongful death lawsuit against Bustamante but did not name the school district. Bustamante has filed a countersuit demanding that the Perez family prove the allegations contained in the lawsuit that they filed.
Gonzalez would not say whether the district has taken disciplinary action against the officers involved that night since it is considered a personnel matter.
"If a protocol was violated obviously we will deal with that," Gonzalez said. "But I don't know the answer to that right now."
Bustamante is scheduled to be tried on murder charges on July 21.