Officers end crazy Friday chase with spike strips
On Friday, law-enforcement officers from several jurisdictions were involved in a high-speed chase that finally ended when officers took out the vehicle's tires with a spike strip, and the vehicle eventually went off the road (on tireless front rims) into a bayou:
The chase began around 2:45pm after the driver allegedly robbed a dry cleaning business in Pasadena.. Police said the driver fired shots at authorities after the robbery and allegedly threw a gun from the truck during the chase. About 20 or more police cars were involved in the pursuit.
During the pursuit, the driver often veered into oncoming traffic lanes, forcing other cars off roads to avoid collisions. The fleeing pickup scraped several cars, including at least one police cruiser, and stopped only briefly after hitting a red pickup's passenger side.
A 24-year-old woman and her 7-year-old son in the red pickup were not hurt, police said.
The chase spread from south Houston to Pearland and back, with the driver alternating between Highway 288, rural roads and finally the Sam Houston Tollway south of downtown Houston. At one point, the driver turned off Highway 288 and sped through a golf course before returning to the highway.
The chase ended at about 4:30 p.m. when the driver, who was northbound on the tollway near the Houston Ship Channel, left the roadway and drove into a creek.
Minutes earlier, police had managed to throw down spike sticks as the driver zipped through a toll booth. Shredded rubber fell off the front tires and the driver kept going on the metal rims until veering into the creek.
Former officer Tom Nixon got himself in trouble for criticizing HPD's no-ram policy on high-speed chases. Does anyone know if HPD's chase policy allows the use of spike strips, or if those were laid down by some other law-enforcement agency involved in the pursuit?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/23/06 02:41 PM | Print |
Previous Entry | Home | Next Entry
ADVERTISING
DISCLAIMER
All content © 2004-09, blogHOUSTON and the respective authors.
blogHOUSTON.net is powered by Nucleus.
Site design and Nucleus customization are by Kevin Whited.