UPDATE: The suspect that fled from the scene following this morning’s fatality traffic accident on West County Line Road has been identified as 26-year old Austin Taylor Meade of North Las Vegas, Nevada (photo attached: Henderson, Nevada, booking photo from previous arrest).
An arrest warrant for Meade has been issued charging him with 1st degree felony Murder (TPC 19.02). Bond for this warrant has already been set at $1,000,000. Due to the nature of the charge, and his actions following the crash, Meade should be considered potentially armed and dangerous.
Anyone with information on Meade’s whereabouts should call 911, their local law enforcement agency, or Comal Crime Stoppers. Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $4,000 for information that leads to Meade’s arrest. To remain anonymous and to collect the reward, contact Crime Stoppers at 830-620-TIPS (8477), leave a tip online at http://comalcrimestoppers.org/, or send a tip using the “P3 Tips” smartphone app available on iOS and Android devices.
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ORIGINAL RELEASE: On today’s date (11-21-18), at approximately 8:00am, officers with the New Braunfels Police Department were notified by a company in San Antonio that one of their work trucks had been stolen and they had tracked the truck to an apartment complex located in the 1300 block of West County Line Road in New Braunfels. Officers responded to that location and were about to make contact with the truck when the driver of the truck fled the apartment complex parking lot at a high rate of speed. The truck traveled eastbound on West County Line Road until it ran a stop sign and collided with a silver Ford Edge at the intersection of Dove Crossing Drive. The impact of that collision was directly on the driver’s side door of the Ford Edge, killing the driver of that vehicle who has since been identified as 39-year old Amber Rachelle Williams of New Braunfels. Next of kin has been notified.
Immediately following the crash, the driver of the truck exited the vehicle and fled the scene on foot heading into nearby Fischer Park. He then made his way to a nearby entrance/exit to the park and initially it was believed he had stolen a vehicle at knifepoint at that location. Further investigation has revealed that, instead, he flagged down a vehicle and asked for a ride. The female driver of the vehicle initially voluntarily gave him a ride to her home in the 1100 block of Blazewood Drive, but after a few minutes inside the home the suspect threatened her with a kitchen knife and took the keys to her vehicle. He then fled in the woman’s vehicle, a silver 2012 Kia Forte bearing Texas license plate DT6-R476 with a pink sticker in the back windshield.
The suspect is described as a male in his 20’s wearing a black jacket and white t-shirt. Anyone with information on his whereabouts or the whereabouts of the Kia Forte is asked to call 911 or their local law enforcement agency immediately. The suspect may still be armed with a knife so the suspect should not be approached by anyone other than law enforcement.