{"id":353771,"date":"2026-06-28T20:57:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T20:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/353771\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T20:57:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T20:57:19","slug":"montgomery-county-sheriffs-office-deputy-killed-another-injured-while-responding-to-multi-vehicle-crash-on-north-fwy-mcso-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/353771\/","title":{"rendered":"Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office deputy killed, another injured while responding to multi-vehicle crash on North Fwy, MCSO says"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — A deputy who was killed and another who was injured have been identified after they were hit by a vehicle while responding to a multi-vehicle crash on the North Freeway, authorities said.<\/p>\n

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said the original crash happened at I-45 North near Lake Woodlands at 2:40 a.m. on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Investigators said they identified one of the drivers in that initial crash as 34-year-old Ashton Jammer. According to officials, he was charged with driving while intoxicated and will be taken to the Montgomery County Jail.<\/p>\n

Less than 30 minutes after the first crash, authorities said they received a call reporting that two deputies at the scene were struck by a different vehicle.<\/p>\n

The driver of that vehicle was transported to a local hospital, deputies said.<\/p>\n

When ABC13 arrived at the scene Sunday morning, at least five vehicles, including a heavily damaged deputy car, remained at the crash site.<\/p>\n

Both directions of the North Freeway experienced traffic disruptions, with northbound traffic being diverted at Rayford Road and at least one southbound lane blocked by law enforcement vehicles.<\/p>\n

MCSO identified the deputy killed as 24-year-old Erika Serrato. Investigators said she was hit by a heavy commercial vehicle and was taken to the hospital, where she later died.<\/p>\n

According to Sheriff Doolittle, Serrato worked for the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office for six years, first as a detention officer at the jail, and started patrolling six months ago.<\/p>\n

“When I took the oath to serve as Sheriff, I understood there would be difficult days. Today has proven to be one of the hardest of my career,” Sheriff Doolittle said in a statement<\/a>. “There are no words that can fully express the grief our Sheriff’s Office is experiencing today. Erika was not just a Deputy, she was family. She wore the badge with honor, served with unwavering courage, and represented the very best of our profession.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

At the request of Judge Mark Keough, Governor Greg Abbott has ordered all flags across Montgomery County to be lowered to half staff in Serrato’s honor, Keough said.<\/p>\n

Investigators said the injured deputy, identified as John Hernandez, was hurt by debris from the crash. Deputies said he is expected to be OK.<\/p>\n

This is a developing story. Eyewitness News is continuing to gather facts.<\/p>\n

For the latest breaking news, weather, and traffic, ABC13 is now live on Disney+. Always on, always under the live tab on Disney+ and everywhere you stream.<\/p>\n

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“<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — A deputy who was killed and another who was injured have been identified…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[125909,56,58,57],"class_list":["post-353771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-125909","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}