A man was in stable condition Tuesday after he lost his arm while hanging out of a moving vehicle that crashed near North Fourth Avenue and East Sixth Street, police said.
The man’s severed arm was later found in a trash bin.
Aaron D. Soetaert, 22, was in a fight with the driver early Tuesday when the driver side-swiped a tree, which severed Soetaert’s right arm, said Sgt. Fabian Pacheco, a Tucson Police Department spokesman. The vehicle was traveling on North Hoff Avenue at the time.
Soetaert, an active duty airman at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, was taken to a hospital, where he was expected to survive.
Pacheco gave this account of the incident:
At 12:46 a.m., witnesses reported seeing Soetaert chasing a 2007 Jeep Liberty that kept slowing down and speeding up near Fourth Avenue and East Seventh Street.
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Once Soetaert caught up to the vehicle, he got inside, but part of his body was hanging out of the truck.
The vehicle drove north up Fourth Avenue, and east on Sixth Street before making a right turn and heading south on Hoff Avenue.
The driver hit the tree, causing Soetaert’s arm to get severed.
The driver told two other people in the vehicle to get out before he drove to an apartment complex near East 10th Street and North Mountain Avenue.
He took Soetaert’s severed arm and put it in an outdoor garbage bin. Authorities found the arm hours later.
The driver told detectives that Soetaert was drunk and was trying to choke him.
Soetaert, the driver and the other two men knew each other.
No arrests have been made.
Tucson police are still investigating the incident.
Contact reporter Jamar Younger at 573-4115 or jyounger@azstarnet.com.
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