AUSTIN, Texas — CBS Austin is continuing to follow an arrest that was announced Thursday afternoon in connection to a deadly road rage shooting from September.
Earlier this week, the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force arrested 28-year-old Justin Justice for the death of 46-year-old Teressa Ferguson. Newly released court documents reveal smart technology played a role in discovering the shooting and the arrest.
“This is so extraordinary. The way they were able to get information from her iPhone. To be able to arrest this fugitive,” said Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith with the National Police Association.
This isn’t Justice’s first run in with the law. He’s been arrested multiple times and is a registered sex offender in the state if Texas. However, those past experiences weren’t enough to outsmart the technology that helped capture him.
Austin police say a minor crash escalated into a road rage shooting that cost 46-year-old Teressa Gandy Ferguson her life on September 30th. She was reportedly involved in a collision with 28-year-old Justin Justice while driving along I-35 in north Austin.
While on the phone with a friend, Teressa pulled off near Rundberg Lane and 183 to exchange information. According to police, her friend told police that the call abruptly came to an end.
A short time later APD says they received an automated phone call from Ferguson’s apple cell phone notifying them she had been in an accident. When the officers arrived on scene, they found her in the driver’s seat with a gunshot wound to the head. Ferguson died at the scene.
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Technology played a key role in helping officers find and eventually arrest justice, according to the arrest warrant. We spoke with local tech expert Chris Humphreys about how Ferguson’s iPhone and other technology helped identify the suspect.
“Without that- this could have been a hit and run and they never would have caught the person. It’s a very, very cool technology especially in that kind of use case where you’ve got elderly parents or people who are in bad health or need to have that data,” he said.
Court documents state surveillance video from a Super 8 Motel captured a silver infinity speeding away from the crime scene. Detectives traced the license plate number which revealed Justice was the owner of the car and additional video placed him at the scene of the crime, documents say. Investigators believe Ferguson’s death stemmed from road rage.
Nicole Golden with Texas Gun Sense says data shows states with lenient gun laws tend to see an increase in road rage incidents that involve shootings, injuries, or death.
“That is a terrible, terrible tragedy and avoidable and preventable. As a lot of people may know in 2021 Texas passed a permit less carry law,” Golden said.
On Halloween– the Lone Star Fugitive task force tracked Justice to Round Rock and initiated a traffic stop. He tried running away but was eventually arrested.
“I want to tell other women who might be in a similar situation. If this happened to you and you feel kind of in your gut like oh, I this is not a good situation. Get out of it. It’s okay. You’re not going get arrested for leaving the scene of reminder crash review explained to the police. They just really felt unsafe,” said Smith.
As of Thursday night, Justice remains in the Travis County jail tonight charged with murder. Ferguson’s family has started a GoFundMe to help during their tragic loss. https://www.gofundme.com/f/tressa-ferguson-glisson
