A 20-year-old University of North Texas student acting as a designated driver on New Year's died after being shot in an apparent road rage incident.
According to WFAA, Sara Mutschlechner was driving a car with her friends as passengers early in the morning on New Year's Day when another vehicle pulled up next to theirs and people in both cars began talking.
Officer Shane Kizer, a spokesman with the Denton police, told ABC News the two cars had no animosity toward one another until the SUV and the men inside made certain remarks toward the women in Mutschlechner's car. As the two traveled through an intersection on University Drive, someone in the SUV fired a gun two or three times toward the other car, and a bullet struck Mutschlechner in the head.
The car she was driving hit another car and then an electrical pole. One of her friends in the car suffered non-life-threatening injuries. At the hospital, Mutschlechner needed to be placed on life support, but Kizer said she died Friday evening after being taken off life support.
According to BuzzFeed News, Mutschlechner was a third year student at UNT who was part of the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority. The criminal investigation is ongoing and police have not placed anyone in custody.
Majoring in radio, television and film, and minoring in theater, Mutschlechner was an aspiring filmmaker, ABC News reported.
"Each and every one of our lives at the Gamma Phi Chapter of ZTA has been touched by the spunky, selfless attitude of our beloved sister, Sara," ZTA's chapter president Jordan Roberts said in a statement. "She is by far one of the most spirited, honest and fun-loving people I ever had the privilege to know. She will truly be missed."
