Homer Lopez, 20, appeared for the first time before a judge overnight, more than a day after he was taken into custody in connection with the incident.
RELATED: Driver's mom killed when car plows into crowd of people in Katy area
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Lopez is accused of driving a vehicle that ran over five people early Thursday morning in the 1200 block of Mason Road, near the Katy Freeway.
Lopez's mother, Crystal Gomez, was identified as the lone fatality in the crash, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.
Beside Gomez, two people were rushed to the hospital, one of them admitted into surgery in critical condition. Two others were treated at the scene.
Lopez is charged with murder and two counts of failure to stop and render aid.
The incident started as a fight inside Pinchy's Tex Mex Restaurant among seven or eight people that spilled into the parking lot, according to deputies.
Citing early findings, investigators said it appeared the suspect drove into a crowd of people to break up a fight between two women.
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ABC13 was at the scene when deputies arrested Lopez in the fatal attack involving a blue Chevy Malibu. Investigators say he left the scene but later returned, and that's when he was arrested.
"Out of nowhere, you just hear a car crash, and we all looked that direction, and we didn't even see the girl. We saw the guy first," Jeff, a witness at the scene, recalled at the time. "We saw him holding his leg. He was on the hood of another car next to him."
"It was senseless. Like, why do that? It's senseless. It's sad and it's senseless. Especially nowadays," Jimmy Hernandez said. "That's what's sad. I have no idea what it was over. It was one of those things where, 'Hey, let's just go home.' Right? One of those things where something happened. 'Let's break it out and just go home.'"