Francisca Cortez: Woman Accused of Hit and Run That Led to HPD Officer's Death

HPD

Kevin Will: Killed while investigating crash.

​The driver who hit two motorcyclists and then fled the scene in an incident that eventually led to the death of a Houston police officer has been found and charged, according to court documents.

As we noted, the mystery person behind the wheel of a white Suburban was just about HPD's most-wanted hit-and-run driver in a while.

Francisca Cortez, 28, has been charged with an accident involving injury or death, and court documents allege she was pretty persistent about the running part of hit-and-run: Witnesses told investigators that Cortez hit two motorcycles, dragging them 1,700 feet. She then got out of the car and "attempted to pull the motorcycles out from under the vehicle," got back in and roared away.

HPD officer Kevin Will was sent to investigate the crash; while he was interviewing people, a car driven by an allegedly drunk Johoan Rodriguez crashed through a police barrier and struck Will, killing him.

Rodriguez has been charged with intoxication manslaughter of a peace officer.

The court documents in the Cortez case, first reported by KHOU, note that one of the witnesses to the original accident, who stopped to help the victims who had been thrown from their bikes, said he told Cortez not to leave the scene, but as soon as she got those bikes out from under her car she was gone.