A man was in stable condition Tuesday after his arm was severed while he was hanging out of a moving SUV that crashed near downtown, police said.
The man's arm was later found in a trash bin.
Aaron D. Soetaert, 22, was in a fight with the driver early Tuesday when the vehicle side-swiped a tree, which severed Soetaert's right arm, said Sgt. Fabian Pacheco, a Tucson Police Department spokesman. The SUV 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 running after a 2007 Jeep Liberty that kept slowing down and speeding up near North Fourth Avenue and East Seventh Street.
People are also reading…
Once Soetaert caught up to the SUV, he got inside, but part of his body was hanging out of the vehicle.
The vehicle drove north up Fourth Avenue and east on Sixth Street before making a right turn and heading south on Hoff.
The SUV hit the tree, causing Soetaert's arm to be 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 know each other.
No arrests had been made. Police are still investigating.
