Updated August 14, 2001, 4:50 p.m. ET
Officer shot when he arrived at robbery scene, then dragged under car, witness says  
   

DALLAS (AP) — An Irving police officer was riddled with bullets at the scene of a holdup before he could even put his squad car in park, an investigator testified Tuesday at the murder trial of an inmate accused of leading a deadly prison break last year.

And after he was shot, Officer Aubrey Hawkins was pulled from his car and run over, his body lodging under his assailants' getaway car, Officer Steven Hazard said.

"He was wedged in the tire so that he's skidding along the ground," Hazard testified during the second day of the capital murder trial of prison escapee George Rivas.

Hawkins, who had been shot 11 times, was dragged more than six feet before the driver of the escape vehicle shifted into reverse, dislodged Hawkins' body and ran over it again, Hazard said.

"Every time the tire made a revolution it left a blood print," he said.

Rivas is accused of being the ringleader of a gang of seven Texas convicts who broke out of a maximum-security prison Dec. 13 and evaded authorities for weeks before they were tracked down in Colorado. One committed suicide.

Rivas already is serving one of 17 life sentences, most of them for armed robbery; if convicted in Hawkins' death on Christmas Eve, he could face the death penalty. The others face trial later.

Rivas has admitted shooting Hawkins, and prosecutors will show jurors the 21-page statement he gave to police. His lawyer says the shooting was unplanned.

 

 
 


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