Man Turns Truck Into Murder Weapon
Updated 6:07 PM EST, Mon, Dec 1, 2008
Update from Bucks County Courier Times:
After being refused drinks and escorted out of a Bensalem bar Saturday night, a 35-year-old illegal immigrant slammed a pickup truck into one of the bar's employees, pinning the employee against the building and killing him.
Jose Esteban Maldonado-Luzuriaga, an Ecuador native who authorities say has lived in the United States for five or six years, now faces homicide and related charges.
Dressed in baby blue prison garb, handcuffed and locked in leg shackles, Maldonado-Luzuriaga was arraigned at 8 a.m. Sunday and sent to Bucks County prison in lieu of $3 million bail for allegedly killing 30-year-old William Sullo III, of the Parkwood section of Philadelphia, who worked as a take-out clerk at Salute Restaurant Bar at 2564 Knights Road.
Police said Maldonado-Luzuriaga was already intoxicated when he entered Salute Saturday night and was refused service; instead, a bartender gave him a glass of water.
A man was killed when a man driving a white pickup truck pinned the victim between the truck and a building, the Salute Bar and Restaurant in Bensalem, at about 10:20 p.m. Saturday night.
The victim, 30-year-old William Soullo, was taken to an area hospital and pronounced dead. The driver, Jose Maldonado-Luzuriaga, suffered minor injuries.
Maldonado-Luzuriaga became disorderly in the bar and was escorted out, authorities said. He drove his truck around the parking lot several times, stopped facing the building and then accelerated toward two employees, striking Solo and pinning him against the door, authorities said.
"He got in that truck, drove around, thought about what he was doing, stopped right in front of the establishment, saw two people standing in front and then gunned the engines and drove right into them," said Bucks County First District Attorney David Zellis.
Maldonado-Luzuriaga was arraigned at 8 a.m. Sunday. He is charged with criminal homicide, criminal attempted homicide, accident without being licensed and criminally endangering other person. He has been living in the country illegally for six years, police said, and is facing 20 to 40 years in prison.
First Published: Nov 30, 2008 7:17 AM EST
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