BRENHAM, Texas — The Brenham community is trying to make sense of a tragedy that left one dead, several injured and one man in jail.
Clenard Parker is in the Washington County Jail charged with five offenses after being accused of crashing a stolen semi into the DPS office in Brenham.
DPS said Parker drove the 18-wheeler into the Brenham office after he was denied a CDL renewal the day before.
Now, the community reminds outsiders that there’s much more to Brenham, Texas than ice cream and bluebonnets.
"We're a tight-knit community,” said longtime resident Margareta Carlson.
RELATED: One dead, 13 injured after stolen 18-wheeler crashed into Texas DPS office in Brenham, officials say
You’ll find people like Carlson just about everywhere you turn. People who know Brenham know just how much impact this tragedy has.
“I thought about that yesterday. Do we take flowers over there once they get back set up tell them how we were thinking about them," she said.
There’s an old saying about news traveling, especially, when you don’t want to believe it.
"I hear all these people coming in saying oh my gosh it was on purpose someone has stolen. A truck word had traveled around fast everyone knew,” said resident Natalia Chacon.
Chacon was caught in traffic backup along US 290 Friday. She didn’t know it then, but officials later said Parker rammed a stolen semi through the front doors. These are the same doors most folks around the area have opened.
“It was just devastating. Both of my daughters got their permits and licenses through there," said Carlson. "And the women that work the counters, and just a small community. You feel really connected to everyone.”
Although the building is boarded up and troopers still stand guard, this is a scar and in this small town when you lose one life and 13 others injured, you feel it in your heart.
“We don’t know who was there, but those are people that we see every day they were just there, living their life," said Chacon.
That sense of caring is the biggest part of what you’ll find in Brenham.
"Hope that we will all heal quickly. And people who are affected are hanging in there," said Carlson.