Video from the chase
Slideshow from the chase
A driver in a pickup truck led police on a high-speed chase through northwest Houston for nearly an hour, narrowly dodging traffic and running several red lights after ramming into a patrol car.
The chase started shortly after 1 p.m. near downtown Houston in the 300 block of Hogan near North Main when the officers tried to pull the driver over for speeding.
“The officer attempted to stop the vehicle, flagged him down to pull over. At that time, the driver began to speed up and almost ran down my partner. My partner had to get out of the way. At that point, I started the chase. I tried to pull him over. He refused to stop and during that time, he struck around three vehicles,” HPD Officer Ricardo Rojas-Garcia said.
A short time later, the driver rammed a police car, and the passenger jumped out. He was immediately taken into custody.
The vehicle, with only the driver inside, continued to weave in and out of traffic on Memorial Drive, North Post Oak, Hempstead Highway, T.C. Jester and other streets.
At times, traffic slowed down the chase suspect, but he did not stop. Several police cars were in pursuit.
The fleeing truck almost struck motorist Nelson Cormack car three times.
“He actually came at us at one point and swung around. It was pretty close,” Cormack said.
Patrol cars almost had the suspect blocked in on a narrow residential street in Independence Heights about 30 minutes after the chase began, but he maneuvered around them. A tow truck driver stepped in front of the car in pursuit and was almost run over. He was able to jump out of the way.
When police tried to box in the truck on a side street, the suspect drove onto a yard to get around officers.
At least three times, patrol cars hit the back of the fleeing truck in an effort to spin it out of control, but the maneuver did not work.
The chase ended more than 50 minutes after it began, when a delivery truck inadvertently blocked a street, allowing for three police cars to corner the vehicle on Arlington near Tidwell. When the truck had no room to move, officers pulled the driver out.
“It was just luck of the draw so he had no way to go but to the right. He had to cut back left and that’s when the police officers rammed him and stopped him,” said Brack Irvin, the delivery truck driver.
Authorities said a crack pipe was found inside the truck, which was also littered with beer cans.
No one was injured. Charges are pending.