Related article: Driver charged in HPD officer’s death near I-10
Officer Down: Officer Gary Gryder
By Brian Rogers
The Houston Chronicle
HOUSTON — A man accused of killing one Houston police officer and injuring another in a car wreck will be drug tested and evaluated by mental health professionals to investigate his behavior in the minutes after the incident.
Hung Dasian Truong, 24, will be held for a 21-day mental evaluation, a judge ruled Tuesday. Initial alcohol and drug tests got negative results, but investigators are awaiting the results of a second, more detailed round of blood tests to determine whether Truong was impaired at the time of the incident early Sunday morning.
Truong was taken into custody while laughing uncontrollably and refusing to answer questions, Harris County Assistant District Attorney Denise Bradley said.
According to court records, investigators suspect that Truong may have been under the influence of salvia divinorum.
Salvia is an herb-based hallucinogen used spiritually by Mazatec Indians from the Oaxaca area, and increasingly popular among teens and college-age students, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
In state District Judge Caprice Cosper’s court, Bradley recounted the wreck that killed Houston police officer Gary Gryder and put officer Joe Pyland in a hospital with leg fractures.
Bradley said Truong’s 1998 Toyota sedan was speeding while westbound on the Katy Freeway around 5:30 a.m. Sunday morning when he hit both officers and slammed into a barricade at the intersection of Texas 6.
“Officer Gryder was thrown about 77 feet,” Bradley said after the brief hearing.
Bradley said early reports indicate that Truong came to the United States from Vietnam when he was 11. A hold has been placed on him by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Although a hold can indicate that someone is in this country illegally, Truong’s immigration status is valid, ICE officials said.
Agency spokesman Greg Palmore confirmed Truong was in the country legally, but could not explain whether he had a visa or was a legal permanent resident.
Because he was charged with a serious crime, ICE agents would want to evaluate him before he is released from jail, Palmore said.
Bradley plans to interview members of Truong’s family.
She also said Truong worked for an electrical services company through a temporary employment agency.
Skip Cornelius, Truong’s court-appointed attorney, said Truong is “very, very sorry.”
Cornelius also said he hopes the mental evaluation will shed light on what police said was “bizarre” behavior at the scene.
The judge also signed an order allowing investigators to download data from the car’s computer, information that may show how fast Truong was going and whether he hit the brakes before the car hit the officers.
Copyright 2008 The Houston Chonicle