MILWAUKEE — In the moments following a deadly crash that killed a local pastor, body camera footage shows the response by the man responsible.
“I saw a yellow light and I was in a rush,” Jose Silva told police. “The car was coming through and I ended up, like I said, I was in a rush.”
Silva said he was in a rush to make it to jury duty. He told police he was supposed to be at the courthouse at 8:30 a.m. The crash happened after 9 a.m.
According to the crash report, Silva covered the distance from 21st Street to 10th Street, .8 miles according to Google Maps, in 39 seconds. Police say Silva blew five red lights at 17th, 16th, 12th, 11th and 10th Streets. Additionally, Silva drove in the opposing lane of traffic at both 17th and 12th streets.
Crash records from Silva's vehicle show he was going up to 74 mph. Through data acquired through Silva's vehicle, it shows five seconds before the crash, he was traveling 71 mph. Then, 3.5 seconds before impact, Silva released the accelerator pedal and was traveling 74 mph. Two seconds before impact, he was traveling 72 mph and first started pressing the brake. At the point of impact when the airbags deployed, records show Silva was traveling 56 mph.
Silva was adamant he had driven through yellow lights and was only going five miles per hour over the posted speed limit, which he believed to be 30 or 35 mph.
During an interrogation, Silva was presented with video and photo evidence of his reckless driving. With this information, he admitted to his wrongdoing.
“I was speeding,” Silva said. “I was trying to make it to a court summons. I didn’t think I went through that many red lights. Honestly, I thought they were yellow when I was approaching but I can obviously see that they were not.”
Silva told police he had not been drinking, though he admitted to police there was a bottle of alcohol under one of his seats.
“I have a really, really old bottle of alcohol in the car,” Silva told police. “It’s under the seat.”
“Were you drinking today?” one of the officers asked.
“It was not today,” Silva said. “It was really old. I was worrying about it as soon as this happened that I’m getting in trouble for the wrong thing. It should be under my passenger seat. I never got around to throwing it out. It’s really old.”
Silva had his blood drawn at a local hospital and in court records, it was reported his BAC .193, more than twice the legal limit.
Throughout his encounters with police, Silva kept asking about the injury status of Pastor Aaron Strong. One officer admitted to other officers that he withheld that information from Silva during the booking process to try and make things go smoother.
It wasn’t until the end of his interrogation that Silva learned he had killed Strong.
WATCH: Jose Silva finds out he killed Pastor Aaron Strong
“I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you caused a death in the crash,” an officer said to Silva.
Silva drops his elbows to the table and thrusts his head into his hands. He can be heard crying over the video as the interrogator shares more information about the man he killed.
“This guy right here,” the man points to a picture of Strong. “He’s a priest. A pastor.”
“I was just trying to get here,” Silva said before the interrogator interrupts him.
“And he has kids.”
The interrogator gives Silva several pieces of paper to write an apology to the family. For roughly 10 minutes, Silva scribbles on the paper, taking breaks, crying into his arms. The letter was not provided to TMJ4 through its records request.
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