An Odessa man is facing multiple felony charges after allegedly choking a woman, leading police on a drunken chase and crashing into another vehicle.
According to an Odessa Police Department report, a 28-year-old woman told police she was at The Brewery on East 7th Street Thursday night when Hector Rodriguez, Jr., 35, got upset with her because she was playing pool with some other people and pushed her to the ground, causing her to cut and bruise her knees.
The woman said when Rodriguez followed her into the bathroom he took her phone away from her, told her if she called for help he’d kill her son and proceeded to choke her, the report stated. She ran to The Lift restaurant where she called 911.
An officer responding to the call spotted a vehicle matching the description provided to dispatchers traveling at an “extremely high rate of speed” on West Eighth Street. When the officer tried to pull it over, the driver began swerving in and out of lanes of traffic, even going into the opposite lanes at time, the report stated.
The driver continued speeding and otherwise driving dangerously as the pursuit continued onto Grant Avenue and then Kermit Highway, the report stated.
The driver ran the red light at Kermit Highway and Golder Avenue and collided with another car, according to the report.
According to the report, the driver, identified as Rodriguez, had glassy, bloodshot eyes, smelled of alcohol, was unsteady on his feet and slurred his speech. Rodriguez’s behavior swung from calm to aggressive and he resisted being placed in the back seat of the patrol car.
Once in the car, he spit in an officer’s face and while at the hospital, fought having his blood drawn, the report stated.
Rodriquez was arrested on suspicion of robbery, evading arrest with a vehicle, harassment of a public servant, driving while intoxicated with a prior conviction and two counts of resisting arrest, search or transport.
He remained in the Ector County jail Monday night on surety bonds totaling $69,500.
