The Mercury News reported that 32-year-old Alex Moreno was on an “alcohol-and-cocaine bender” at the time of the incident, as well as receiving oral sex when he “accidentally placed the vehicle in reverse and proceeded to reverse at a high rate of speed,” before crashing into the Agave Sports Bar and Grill in San Jose and hitting three restaurant patrons, the San Jose Police Department reported.
Two adult male victims suffered injuries to their legs, but the injuries are non-life-threatening, the police report said. The third victim, 35-year-old Diana Prieto-Chacon, died at the hospital shortly after arriving.
Prieto-Chacon was a Columbian woman in the United States for “a brief period,” and worked at the bar. Telemundo reported that she had a 3-year-old daughter who she had left in Columbia.
The police report said that Moreno was asked numerous times to leave the bar after allegedly doing cocaine out in the open, acting belligerently intoxicated, and attempting to take a woman’s top off.
The bar’s security guards told police that Moreno and his female companion, a 24-year-old woman, agreed to leave, and got into his white 2017 Chevrolet Silverado truck. The truck was a company vehicle owned by his employer, Quality Erectors and Construction, Inc.
Moreno’s employer said in a statement that Moreno was unauthorized to be using the vehicle off the clock, The Mercury News reported.
Newsweek followed up with Quality Erectors and Construction, Inc. for additional comment.
Witnesses stated that Moreno and the woman were in the truck for half an hour. The woman told police that she had been performing an oral sex act on Moreno while he was in the driver’s seat, and did not notice the truck moving.
Police stated that the truck began backing up as fast as 45 miles per hour, barreling through the parking lot and colliding with the outdoor seating of the restaurant. Prieto-Chacon and the two male victims were pinned against the side of the restaurant, according to The Mercury News.
Moreno was arrested and booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail for felony DUI and gross vehicular manslaughter, the police report stated. His female passenger suffered no injuries.
Telemundo reported that a friend of Prieto-Chacon, who wished to remain unknown, said: “It was one of those shocking news that being in a sitting place and that something like this absurd happened.”
A Facebook post from Prieto-Chacon’s mother said that she was the best daughter who was taken too soon and promised to take care of her child.
The San Jose police stated that this was the 8th auto versus pedestrian fatal collision they had seen in 2021.
