Driver in HPD officer's death may have been illegal immigrant

Rodriguez remained in the Harris County Jail Monday with no bail set. He is also charged with possession of less than a gram of cocaine and evading arrest. He is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday. Investigators say Rodriguez flew past flashing lights early Sunday, as he was traveling east on the North Loop when his car struck Will near the Yale exit. The HPD officer, just two years on the job, was investigating a hit-and-run accident along Loop 610 North when a driver, apparently drunk, ignored the flashing lights of patrol cars and steered his Volkswagen around a makeshift barrier set up to block the freeway. Rodriguez' vehicle plowed into Will, killing the 38-year-officer at the scene. The officer leaves behind a pregnant wife, Alicia, whom he married last year. He also has two stepchildren: a 10-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl. Just before he died, Will yelled at the witness he was interviewing to "get out of the way," just before the speeding vehicle careened through the police barricade. ... "The witness had no time to look around or react, except to leap over the concrete barrier that divides the freeway," Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland said. "He credits Officer Will with giving him the prior warning of getting out of the way. It actually saved his life, or he said, he would have been struck with Officer Will."