PUERTO RICO -- Agent Mariano Rodríguez-Maldonado, who had served with the Puerto Rico Police Department for seven years, was killed in an automobile accident as he and his partner responded to a call involving a mental patient. The patient was causing a disturbance at a gas station.
Rodríguez-Maldonado and his partner were traveling along PR-3 when their cruiser left the roadway and struck the highway divider. The impact impaled the vehicle's passenger side, which is where Rodríguez-Maldonado was riding. He suffered fatal injuries and his partner suffered severe leg injuries.