Background: News footage of Grapevine Lake in Grapevine, Texas, where the fatal collision took place (KDFW). Inset left: Ava Moore (United States Air Force Academy). Insets right, top to bottom: Daikerlyn Alejandra Gonzalez Gonzalez, Maikel Coello Perozo (Grapevine Police Department).
A Texas woman who had just graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy had her future cut short when the kayak she was riding was struck from behind.
Ava Moore, 18, was killed on Sunday while kayaking on Grapevine Lake in Texas, near the Dallas-Fort Worth area. According to arrest documents obtained by local NBC affiliate KXAS, witnesses at the scene said that Daikerlyn Alejandra Gonzalez Gonzalez, 21, was operating a jet ski in the same lake in a reckless manner “before eventually colliding with one of two kayakers paddling near the shoreline.” Upon realizing that Moore had been hit and was injured, Gonzalez allegedly left the scene immediately.
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KDFW, a local Fox affiliate that also obtained the arrest documents, reported that Moore and the other woman on the kayak had attempted to paddle away from where Gonzalez was operating her jet ski before the collision.
Following the collision, Moore was pulled from the water to receive medical attention at the scene and was put in an ambulance. She was pronounced dead at 5:59 p.m., before she arrived at the hospital.
Gonzalez was photographed at the scene before she got into a Toyota Corolla that was being driven by Maikel Coello Perozo, 21, who allegedly hit two other vehicles as he drove away.
Both Gonzalez and Perozo were arrested on Tuesday after law enforcement officials surrounded their home in Dallas and coaxed them out. According to a press release from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, both Venezuelan nationals were in the country illegally.
Gonzalez was charged with second-degree manslaughter. Perozo was charged with an accident involving a collision; KDFW reported that additional charges are expected.
