The two-car accident happened shortly before 7 a.m. June 25 at Legacy Drive and Independence Parkway. At first, it didn’t seem that unusual an occurrence for such a busy North Texas intersection. Emergency 911 was called, and a Plano police officer rolled up on the scene shortly afterward.
But then things changed rapidly.
While the officer was investigating the scene, the 27-year-old suspect retrieved a knife from her vehicle, walked to the other car and began stabbing the other driver, according to a statement released by police.
The officer intervened and tried stopping her. Instead, the suspect turned and began attacking him with the knife, ultimately striking him in the arm, police reported. She then ran around the front of the vehicle as the officer circled around the back of the car. She seemed determined to continue her attack.
A few minutes later, she would be dead, shot multiple times by police.
It was later determined that the car driven by the suspect matched the make and model of a car that had been reported stolen. But the department hasn’t released information about where the car was stolen from at the request of an agency involved in the ongoing investigation, officials said.
Investigators are still trying to figure out why a young woman from Addison stole the car and went on the early-morning stabbing spree last week after colliding with the other car.
The deceased suspect, 27-year-old Julie Colon, was identified late last Friday. The officer and the other driver are recovering from non-life threatening injuries after they were released from the hospital. They are expected to make a full recovery.
Police said the officer, who has more than 30 years of service with the Plano Police Department, was only trying to help.
“The actions of this officer saved the life of the other victim,” David Tilley, a spokesman for the Plano Police Department, wrote in an email to Local Profile.
Details about Colon are still not available. She and the second driver were not known to each other, Tilley said in response to a question on a post on the Nextdoor neighborhood networking service.
As is protocol, the victim and officer have not been identified. The officer remains on administrative leave with pay while the investigation continues by the Plano Police Department’s Crimes Against Persons Unit and the Collin County District Attorney’s Office.
The account of events was confirmed by body-worn camera footage and multiple independent witnesses to the incident, police said.
“We are blessed to live in such a safe city but these types of incidents can act as a reminder to all of us that any incident you respond to can turn out different than you expected,” Tilley said.
