Arlington County Police are investigating whether alcohol or prescription drugs played in a role in a violent hit and run, according to a search warrant uncovered by News4.
Alexandra Mendez is charged with aggravated malicious wounding, among other charges, in connection with a crash Jan. 27.
Police said Mendez crashed into several cars at MK Auto on Columbia Pike in Arlington. She’s accused of fleeing the scene, where police said she struck two people, Noormustafa Shaikh and Hamaad Arif.
Arif suffered an injury to his foot.
Shaikh, a father of three, is still in the hospital in critical condition. Emergency crews had to resuscitate him twice, and his family is collecting donations through a GoFundMe page.
“He still can’t breathe on his own. On the plus side, he’s awake, and he’s aware of everybody,” said Katherine Linster, a family friend.
The warrant says Mendez was arrested for drunk driving less than a year before the incident, in May of 2014. She was convicted of reckless driving and her license was suspended, according to the document.
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Witness cell phone video caught Mendez’s license plates and police said it was registered to a local dealership, listed as a loaner car.
According to the warrant, Mendez rented the car using the address of a Fairfax UPS Store.
In order to track her down, police, along with U.S. Marshals, only had Mendez’s cell phone to work from.
They called her, the warrant said, and she allegedly admitted to be the sole driver during the incident but refused to tell police where she was located.
Agents tracked her to a Fairfax neighborhood, and in the early morning hours of Jan. 28, they canvassed the neighborhood, looking for the SUV involved.
When the found it, they arrested Mendez on site.
A woman who said she has been Mendez’s landlord for the past year describes the suspect as “sweet and docile”.
This past weekend police executed a search warrant on the home where Mendez lived, and they seized four prescription bottles and several receipts for alcohol purchases.
She remains in jail held without bond.
