Ferris alleged drunk driver hits Keller teen

KELLER – A Keller Indian Springs Middle School student with dreams of being a cross country track star is in critical condition after being hit by a suspected drunk driver while jogging on Thursday, April 4.

According to Keller PD, Nina Alvarez, 14, was struck by a pickup truck traveling at a high rate of speed while running along Bear Creek Parkway just before 6:30 p.m.

When officers arrived, they found Alvarez unconscious in the roadway. The teenager was on a familiar road in her neighborhood when she was struck.

Investigators say Michael Alphans Mango, Jr., 67, from Ferris, Texas, failed to stop at a crosswalk and struck the teenager. 

Mango remained on the scene and cooperated with police. 

Alvarez was taken to Baylor Scott & White Medical Center-Grapevine, where she remains in critical, but stable condition.

Her family is by her side as she’s in the ICU with two broken femurs, a shattered knee, a broken hip, and bleeding in the brain.

“She is my baby. I got three boys. My daughter is the youngest,” the victim’s father, Leonardo Alvarez, said. 

“We are alone here in this country. We are immigrants – legal immigrants.”

The father works as a truck driver, and was near Lubbock when he received the news from his wife and had to quickly turn around. 

“I tried to stay as calm as possible because there was nothing I could do at that time but support my wife.”

Family and friends have started two fundraisers to help the Alvarez family.  

Mango was arrested for intoxication assault with a vehicle causing serious bodily injury, and booked into the Tarrant County Jail.