SAN ANTONIO, TX – An off-duty Bexar County Sheriff’s deputy was killed early Sunday morning in a tragic wrong-way crash on I-37. The deputy, 20-year-old Meredith Portillo, had recently graduated from the detention academy and was celebrated as a promising young officer.
The incident occurred just before 2 a.m. when San Antonio police received reports of a driver in an F-150 truck traveling northbound in the southbound lanes of I-37 near Loop 1604. Moments later, the truck collided head-on with a Ford Mustang driven by Portillo. The impact caused the truck to overturn and catch fire, resulting in the deaths of both drivers at the scene.
Portillo was not alone in the Mustang. Two passengers were with her; one succumbed to injuries en route to the hospital, while the other is currently recovering. The identities of the truck driver and the passengers in Portillo’s vehicle have not yet been released by authorities.
Sheriff Javier Salazar expressed deep sorrow over the loss, noting that Portillo was a beloved member of both her biological family and her law enforcement family. “We’ve lost a beautiful young lady and a great officer,” Salazar said. “Her father told me she truly enjoyed serving the agency, which is both heartbreaking and heartwarming to hear.”
The sheriff also hinted at the possibility of intoxication being a factor in the crash, a common cause in wrong-way driving incidents. “To know that it was done through somebody else’s selfish act of getting on the road… 99 times out of 100, intoxication is involved in such cases,” he remarked.
In the wake of the tragedy, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office has put resources in place to support both Portillo’s family and her colleagues. “Anybody willing to put on this badge and serve is a hero in my book, and she’ll always be remembered that way,” Salazar affirmed.
As the investigation continues, San Antonio police have yet to identify the driver of the truck or the passengers in Portillo’s vehicle. The community mourns the loss of a dedicated young officer whose life was cut short far too soon.