By Police1 Staff
HOUSTON, Texas — Early this morning, police officers shot and wounded a passenger who was riding in a vehicle with an alleged car thief. The Houston Chronicle reported that before the shots were fired, the driver was repeatedly ramming his vehicle into the officers’ squad car with no signs of letting up.
According to an article from the Houston Chronicle, the shooting occurred in northeast Houston at about 4:15 a.m. The unidentified man who was shot was delivered to a local hospital. Police said he was in serious condition.
Police took custody of the driver and another passenger, whose names have not been released.
After patrol officers had been dispatched on an emergency call about a disturbance at an apartment complex, the chase began, said Victor Senties, an HPD spokesman.
Senties said one of the officers who arrived at the complex heard glass breaking, which he believed to be a car window breaking. Then he saw the pickup speed away.
The pickup was believed to have been stolen, so the officer chased the vehicle in his cruiser while two other officers in a second cruiser followed close behind.
What set this incident apart from other police chases was the truck driver’s efforts at slamming his vehicle into the police cruiser.
The Chronicle reports that the lead patrol car took at least two hits from the truck before it sped away, trying to lose the cops. The second squad car continued the chase, but the truck smashed into the front of that police vehicle, too.
Fearing for their own safety, the two officers in the backup cruiser exited their vehicle as the truck prepared to hit them one more time. At that point, they fired their weapons, hitting the truck, which effectively ended the chase.
The men jumped out of the pickup. Two of them were taken into custody and it was then discovered the front-seat passenger had been wounded in the gunfire.
The driver ran away but was later arrested.
The officers who fired at the truck will placed on three days of administrative duty.
As is customary in the Houston area, the HPD Homicide and Internal Affairs divisions as well as the Harris County District Attorney’s Office will investigate the case.