North Texas woman run over in LBJ rampage wants suspect's charges upgraded: "He had intent"
DALLAS – Meghan Smith said it would have been a regular Friday from sunup to sundown. Coffee in the morning before work and home by 5:30 p.m. to start the weekend with her husband and children.
Instead, the 38-year-old is navigating pain from an incident on 635 West Tuesday morning.
"I have a broken wrist and severe burns and road rash all over my left leg and my back from the engine oil and transmission fluid," she said.
Smith said she was on her way to work when she drove up on an accident. Dallas police said Angel Zarmora Moreno had sideswiped cars, fought on LBJ, and stabbed a person.
The medical assistant said she wanted to aid a man injured on the highway.
"He's trying to get up. I'm telling him, 'Lay still! Lay still! Lay still,'" Smith recalled. "And he's like, 'No, he's coming after us.'"
Investigators said Moreno had taken a Texas Department of Transportation truck. Smith said the man was in her vehicle when she looked up.
"Just run. That's all I could think was run," she said. "He's going to try and hit me."
Smith tried to outrun her car but could not. Police said Moreno hit her and wanted to run her over. She said the suspect ran the front of her vehicle against the TxDOT truck. It may have saved her life.
The viral video looks like the vehicle crushed her, but it didn't. Motorists came to her rescue.
"Somebody was able to reach in and disable my vehicle," she said.
Bystanders held Moreno down until Dallas police arrived. He faces seven counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, two charges of unauthorized use of a vehicle, and criminal mischief.
If Moreno could make the $900,000-plus bond, he has a hold from another jurisdiction for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Smith wants the aggravated assault charge for Tuesday morning's mayhem upgraded to attempted murder.
"There was a point where before I started running, after he backed into the wall, that I saw the look in his eyes," she said. "He looked directly at me. And that's when I took off running like he had intent."
According to Smith, no one can offer a motive for the chronology of chaos. She's heard Moreno lost his job the prior day, but no one has confirmed that with CBS News Texas.
In the meantime, Smith is at home with her 9-year-old son, 12-year-old daughter, and husband, booking doctor appointments. She's also trying to track down a Dallas police detective because her driver's license, cell phone, and other belongings are inside her impounded car.
