By Jessica Farris
The Denver Channel
FORT WORTH, Tex. — When Deputy James Boyd pulled over a black Cadillac in Bowie, Tex., last Thursday for a simple traffic violation, he did not expect to encounter suspected killer Evan Ebel.
Boyd, 27, has been a deputy in Montague County for 4 years.
Boyd says something just didn’t look right with the car when he pulled over the vehicle around 11:20 a.m.
After the Cadillac pulled to a stop, the driver suddenly opened fire on Boyd.
“I remember seeing the gun shoot off,” Boyd said from a room at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth. “I could see the cartridges fly out, at which point I blacked out.”
The driver, Evan Spencer Ebel, is suspected in the murders of Colorado Prison Chief Tom Clements and Denver pizza delivery driver Nathan Leon.
Boyd was hit twice in the chest and suffered one grazing wound to the head. Wise County Sheriff David Walker says the deputy was saved by his bulletproof vest.
“I got kind of halfway up looking for my mic,” says Boyd. “That’s about the time I noticed, ‘Hey I’m bleeding from the face. Something’s not right. I need help.’”
When Boyd radioed for help, he gave a description of the black Cadillac and said that it was traveling southbound, Walker said.
The incident began a high-speed chase and shootout with police. Ebel was driving at speeds of 100 mph and shooting out the window at the pursuing officers, said Decatur Police Chief Rex Hoskins.
The chase ended when Ebel ran a red light and was broadsided by a truck hauling rocks in the city of Decatur in Wise County, Texas.
Boyd doesn’t consider himself a hero. He just counts himself lucky to be alive.
“It was already stuff I knew, but it helped kind of put it into play,” Boyd says.
Boyd is expected to recover and will remain in the hospital for awhile longer.
Bomb-making materials, a Domino’s Pizza bag, maps, surveillance equipment and bloody clothing were found in the Cadillac, among other items. Investigators are working to link the items in the vehicle back to the killings in Colorado.
Reprinted with permission from the Denver Channel