This happened January 1st a mile from the exit to my town. I was in the Mobil station and heard details of the wreck given by and attendant as she misinformed others there. She talked of a car wreck, a fire, a man wearing a teal shirt who left the scene, and he was a Mexican. He also had blood on him and the local police said if you see him follow him, but stay back away from him so you can't be harmed, then call them and let them know where the man is and they will arrest him. Oh, such hysteria.
The first thing is that police never tell you, the citizen, to follow anyone. The fact that the man who walked away from the scene was named Gomez does not prove he was a Mexican. He may have been born here and raised here. How would anyone have known his last name anyway as he walked away from a burning car leaving the scene of an accident? Then there is that teal shirt. Dammit, speak English. Can anyone say blue green?
Later in the day my neighbor knocked on my door. She has a scanner that is on all the time and this man was reportedly seen in our neighborhood. It just so happened that I had left my shed door open. Since the man from the accident is reportedly trying to hide maybe he might be inside my shed. Yeah, right. With the door open. in the end we have no media report of Gomez being arrested. A lot of confusion here but at least people in my area all try and watch out for each other.
The best I can figure on this one is that cops read the license plate on the Gomez car and this gave them his name and the fact that he lived in Arkansas. Chances are that would have been a state trooper who then passed info on to our local cop at the scene. In our small area there would have been one trooper and one cop at the scene. Only a local cop would have told the Mobil attendant anything at all and included things like follow this man if you see him so we can arrest him. This puts citizens on alert for anyone with blood on them and wearing a teal shirt. Wrong move by a cop. There is no indication that Gomez was trying to hide or that he was ever arrested later according to the Sullivan Independent News. Car wrecks cause trauma and confusion.