According to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, a 35-year-old man killed his 77-year-old stepfather before purposely ramming his SUV into a dump truck on FM 149 near Millhouse Road Thursday morning.
The sheriff’s office stated it received a call regarding the crash at 8:52 a.m. Two minutes later, they received a call to a home approximately 100 yards from the crash requesting a welfare check. According to MCSO, the victim’s wife discovered the 77-year-old man, identified as Jeffrey Love, with several acute trauma to the skull. Investigators discovered a machete nearby. He was pronounced dead on the scene.
The wife informed investigators that she saw the suspect, Nicholas Petropolis, drive away in one of the family’s cars.
According to the sheriff’s office, a witness’ dashcam video captured Petropolis accelerating the automobile before colliding with the dump truck. He was pronounced dead on the scene. The MCSO claimed it could have been a murder-suicide.
“Video footage shows that the suspect accelerated and entered oncoming traffic right before the crash was observed. This evidence was obtained by a witness who had a dashcam recording the entire incident,” Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Assistant Chief of Operations Rick Bass stated.
The dump truck driver was taken to a nearby hospital and is likely to recover well.
Investigators are seeking to determine what led to the attack. According to the sheriff’s office, there is some evidence that Petropolis’ mood may have been affected by a prescription change.
“There are some indications early on that there was a change in his medication that may have altered his mood, but they’re (detectives) still running down that information,” said Bass.
The MCSO stated that there had been no previous calls for service to the house for domestic violence.
Reference: Man kills stepfather with machete before intentionally crashing SUV into dump truck, MCSO says