A stolen 18-wheeler truck crashed into a Texas Department of Public Safety building on Friday after the driver, who has since been arrested, was denied a commercial driving license.
Thirteen people have been injured, and one person died at the hospital. The driver of the truck, identified as Clenard Parker, 42, was initially hospitalized but has been turned over to the police.
“I have been briefed and this incident was intentional and done by the suspect who was denied a CDL yesterday,” Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough said in a Facebook post. “He returned today with intent to harm. Continued prayers for the DPS staff, troopers and civilians affected.”
Parker went to the facility on Thursday around 3 p.m. or 4 p.m. where he was denied the CDL, and staff informed him that he was not eligible to renew the license, police said at a Friday press conference. The truck appeared to have wrecked the entrance to the facility, leaving debris scattered in front of the building.
“As you can see across the street, the suspect was backing the vehicle up with the intent of going into [the building] again,” Brenham Mayor Atwood Kenjura said at a news conference. “Our fire chief mentioned that if he had veered a little bit to the left the second time, there would have been a collapse of that building which would have resulted in a lot more injuries and possible [deaths].”
Republican state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, whose hometown is Brenham, Texas, where the incident occurred, has spoken out about the crime.
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“This is a day that you don’t think’s going to happen,” Kolkhorst said. “That office right there is something known to the mayor and I and everyone in Brenham. We’ve taken our children to get their driver’s license there. I’ve gotten my driver’s license there, it’s a place of public service.”
“What we’ve seen today is an act of violence.”
