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Sara Mutschlechner: U.S. Marine Eric Jamal Johnson Arrested In Road Rage Killing

Published on: January 6, 2016 at 8:45 AM
By Tara Dodrill

An arrest has been made in the Sara Mutschlechner road rage killing. A Marine was taken into custody and charged with the fatal shooting of the University North Texas student. Corporal Eric Jamal Johnson, 20, allegedly shot and killed the sorority sister after a verbal altercation occurred during a traffic light encounter.

Sara Mutschlechner, 20, the designated driver for the evening, had just left a New Year’s Eve party with three friends before she stopped at a red light alongside a dark-colored SUV. At least some of the individuals in the vehicle driven by Eric Jamal Johnson are believed to have also attended the same fraternity party the same evening.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr , Sara Mutschlechner was hit in the head by a bullet fired from the dark-colored SUV. Her car crashed into an electric pole, hitting the gunman’s vehicle in the process. The gunman’s Toyota or Lexus SUV contained five or six black men, according to witnesses. Mutschlechner and her friends, two men and one woman, reportedly stayed at the New Year’s Eve party on Cristoforo Drive in Denton, Texas, for less than an hour before opting to leave the large gathering.

Eric Jamal Johnson was arrested in Yuma, Arizona, by U.S. Marshals after a massive manhunt for the murder suspect was initiated, MSN reports. Corporal Johnson was attached to the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma and appears to have been on weekend leave the night of the fatal shooting. Johnson , a rapper, is also known as Santana Sage, according to the Heavy .

Sara was an avid taekwondo fan and had earned her black belt in the sport. According to her University of North Texas sorority sisters, she dreamed of one day opening her own martial arts center. She was in her junior year at the college and was studying radio, television and theater.

One of the passengers in Sara Mutschlechner’s car told police investigators that the SUV pulled up next to their vehicle as they were leaving the party. One of the men inside the SUV allegedly told Sara and her friend that he and his friends wanted to “f**k them.” The statement from the witness also said that one of the male passengers told the men in the SUV the he did not “appreciate their comments.”

At this point during the encounter, one of the men in the rear of the SUV allegedly threatened to beat the male passenger in Mutschlechner’s vehicle. The driver of the SUV then said, “I’ll shoot your a**” and pulled out his handgun, according to the same witness. After the words were exchanged, Sara quickly pulled away, but before the University of North Texas student could get clear of the SUV, two shots were reportedly fired into her car. She was hit in the head, and her car rushed forward and hit a traffic pole.

The Eric Jamal Johnson arrest warrant states that surveillance video from a nearby convenience store captured the two vehicles stopped next to each other around 2:06 a.m. A cashier at the store told Denton police officers that he heard two rounds being fired before the SUV allegedly containing the Marine drove away.

Law enforcement officers were reportedly able to identify Corporal Johnson as the murder suspect through images of musicians who performed at the party that were shared on social media. The Marine also matched the description of the shooter offered by passengers in Sara Mutschlechner’s car. The arrest warrant states that the accused killer was part of the Daytona Boyz group, who played at the New Year’s Eve frat party.

[Image via Twitter]

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