Marine arrested in slaying of North Texas college student

Authorities arrested a suspect Tuesday in the shooting death of a Texas college student who was slain after an apparent road rage incident. An arrest warrant was served on Johnson Tuesday morning by the U.S. Marshals Service. Johnson was stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Arizona.

The University of North Texas student was fatally shot while driving on New Year’s Day in Denton, Texas, about 40 miles northwest of Dallas. As both vehicles began driving away, someone in the SUV opened fire at the auto Mutschlechner was driving, hitting it several times.

According to the affidavit for the arrest warrant, two passengers told police that they had attended a large party in Denton “in which there were multiple musicians/rappers in attendance”.

Police stopped short of identifying Johnson as the shooter in a news conference Tuesday, but they said Johnson was seen with a handgun in the suspect vehicle prior to the shooting.

The auto had crashed into an electric pole, said officer Shane Kizer, a police spokesman.

“Words were exchanged” between the occupants of the two vehicles, police said.

Mutschlechner was taken off life support later that day. Witnesses say Mutschlechner didn’t consume alcohol at the party since she was a designated driver for the three other people inside the vehicle. “It was an amicable conversation to begin with that quickly went downhill and some derogatory statements were made toward the female occupants of that vehicle”, Kizer said. One of her friends also suffered minor injuries.

In the meantime, police are on the lookout for “five or six black males” who may be connected to the shooting, as well as the SUV they were in.

The victim was Sara Mutschlechner, a junior at University of North Texas studying radio and television.

‘She lived with joy and laughed with grace and didn’t care what other people thought.