Man arrested for hitting horse drawn buggy, killing horse

WARSAW, Ind. (WANE) - Update, Tuesday, Oct. 2: Warsaw police arrested Francisco J. Gonzalez, 24, of Warsaw, in connection with the buggy incident, in Warsaw on Tuesday afternoon.

According to police, Gonzalez was identified as the driver of the vehicle that hit a horse drawn buggy on Saturday and killed the horse.

Gonzalez faces charges of; failure to stop after an accident causing serious bodily injury, a class B felony; and, operating while intoxicated causing serious bodily injury, a class D felony.

Gonzalez was taken into custody without incident and was cooperative with officers. Gonzalez would not give a statement to police; he requested his attorney before giving a statement.

The investigation into the incident s ongoing and the Warsaw Police Department advises that there may be more charges once the investigation is complete.

Original story from Monday, Oct. 1:

A drunk driver hit a horse drawn buggy and then fled the scene at around 10:50 p.m. on Saturday in Warsaw. The horse was killed from the impact.

The hit and run happened on Shelden Street, just north of the Warsaw Super Wal-Mart.

Police said five juvenile Amish males had been ejected from the buggy. They suffered minor injuries.

The boys said they were traveling south toward Wal-Mart on Shelden Street when they saw a white car pass them and drive into the Wal-Mart parking lot. The car then made a U-turn and drove back towards the buggy, swerved into their lane, and struck their horse and buggy head-on.

The horse landed on the hood of the car and then fell to the pavement as the driver backed his car up and fled the scene.

Police said they located Francisco Gonzalez, 24, of Warsaw, near US 30 where he was attempting to restart his heavily damaged car. He was covered in blood from the horse.

According to the police report, Gonzalez had a BAC of 0.17.

Police are still trying to determine if the collision was intentional.

Gonzalez is charged with:  

• Failure to stop after a vehicle accident  
• Operating while intoxicated
• Operating a vehicle while per se intoxicated

Additional charges may be sought once the investigation is complete.