A 26-year-old woman was arrested after deputies said she drove around barricades at a fatal crash scene in west Bexar County on Feb. 27 and ran over the body of a man who had already been killed on State Highway 211.
The case drew unusual attention because deputies said the woman, Tionne Spears, entered an active investigation while officers were measuring evidence and nearly struck two investigators. Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said his office is still waiting for test results to determine what Spears may have been under the influence of, while detectives are also trying to learn why the 61-year-old victim was on the dark stretch of road in the first place.
Deputies were first called to the 2000 block of State Highway 211 near Lambda Drive after a vehicle-pedestrian crash late that Friday night. Salazar said the man was “walking across the dark roadway” when a passing vehicle clipped him with a side mirror and knocked him down. A second driver, Salazar said, did not have time to stop and ran over the man as he lay in the lane. The 61-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene. Both drivers stayed and spoke with deputies, and the sheriff said investigators do not suspect either of them of criminal wrongdoing based on what they had seen so far. That left the first stage of the case looking like a fatal roadside investigation focused on visibility, roadway conditions and why the man was in the lane at night.
By the time investigators were documenting the crash, the area had been turned into a controlled work site. Deputies had set out barricades, restricted traffic and covered the man’s body while they took measurements and processed the scene. Salazar said that is when Spears came through in another vehicle, went around the barricades and drove into the secured area. Deputies said her vehicle ran over the body and came close to hitting two investigators who were still on the roadway. No deputy was injured, but the sheriff said the breach turned a fatal crash scene into a second criminal case in a matter of minutes. Spears was taken into custody at the scene and booked into the Bexar County Adult Detention Center, according to the sheriff’s office.
Deputies said Spears now faces three charges: driving while intoxicated, abuse of a corpse and possession of a controlled substance. Salazar said deputies also found a substance they believed to be khat in her possession. He described khat as a stimulant and said investigators were trying to determine whether it played any role in her condition. In the initial public briefing, Salazar said an intoxilyzer test and other lab work would help determine what substance, if any, Spears had used. That distinction matters because deputies publicly tied the possession allegation to the material found with her, while the intoxication case depends on test results and the broader evidence gathered after her arrest. As of the latest reports reviewed Tuesday, March 10, authorities had not released those results.
Investigators are also still trying to answer basic questions about the man who was killed before Spears arrived. Authorities had not publicly released his name in the reports reviewed, and Salazar said deputies were still looking into why he was on the roadway. A black Chrysler 300 registered to the man was found nearby, according to the sheriff, but investigators had not explained whether it had broken down, whether he had stepped out voluntarily or whether some other problem had put him on foot near the highway. Salazar said the man may also have been intoxicated, but he did not present that as a settled conclusion. For now, the first crash remains a fatal pedestrian case with major unanswered questions, even though the later arrest quickly became the part of the story that drew the most public attention.
The procedural path is more straightforward on the charges against Spears than on the still-open questions surrounding the victim. Deputies said the sheriff’s office considers the scene breach, the alleged intoxication and the controlled substance count to be separate parts of the same arrest package. Prosecutors will weigh the evidence gathered by deputies, along with any lab findings, as the case moves through the county court system. The abuse of a corpse charge is tied to what deputies said happened after Spears entered the restricted area. The driving while intoxicated count will depend in part on chemical testing and officer observations. The possession count is tied to the substance deputies said they recovered. Investigators also have to complete the fatal crash file tied to the man’s death, which means the case was still unfolding on two tracks as of March 10.
Salazar said the episode stood out even in a long law enforcement career. “I’ve been doing this job 33 years now and never heard of somebody barreling through a crime scene like that,” he said during the public briefing. In another remark, he said investigators were fortunate that no deputy was hit when Spears’ vehicle entered the secured area. The sheriff’s public comments also underscored how jarring the scene was for investigators, who had been working what already appeared to be a tragic death on a dark road at the edge of the county. There were no public statements in the reports reviewed from the dead man’s family, from Spears or from a lawyer speaking on her behalf. That has left the sheriff’s account, the booking information and the basic roadway facts as the clearest public picture of what happened.
For now, the case remains two investigations at once: a fatal pedestrian crash on a poorly lit highway and a separate arrest tied to what deputies say happened after barricades were in place. The next public milestones are expected to be test results, court filings and any release of the victim’s identity.
Author note: Last updated March 10, 2026.