by JEN BIUNDO
A drunk driver with active warrants for weapons violations was arrested Friday evening after leading deputies on a 15-mile high-speed chase with his young child in the car with him, investigators said.
Hays County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested Austin resident Roland Lopez, 28, near the northbound turnaround of SH 130 and SH 45, just north of Buda.
Law enforcement officers received the original call at about 8:30 p.m. of a suspected drunk driver traveling south on IH-35 in Kyle. The deputy observed the 2003 white Chevy Suburban getting off the interstate at the 215 Kyle Parkway exit. Lopez stopped in front of the Kyle HEB, but took off again, investigators said. He crossed over at the 213 exit and began traveling northbound on the interstate, getting off at the 220 exit and heading east on the SH 45 toll road. He eventually stopped near SH 130.
The chase reached speeds of 85 miles per hour, investigators said.
Officials with the Hays County Sherriff’s Office did not say how old the child in the vehicle was, or if Lopez was related to the child.
Investigators say Lopez fled because he had existing warrants through Travis County for unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, and for carrying a weapon in a prohibited place, both third degree felonies. He also had a detainer through the U.S. State Marshal’s Office.
Following the police chase, Lopez was charged with evading arrest with a motor vehicle with a previous conviction for the same charge, a third degree felony; DWI with a child and child endangerment, both state jail felonies; deadly conduct, a class A misdemeanor; and failure to ID as a fugitive, a class B misdemeanor.
Lopez remains in the Hays County Jail on bonds totaling $29,500.
