Suspected purse snatcher leads police on wild chase, gets hit with patrol vehicle

[Vernal45]

Suspected purse snatcher leads police on wild chase
Police didn't take any chances on the suspect getting away and used a patrol vehicle to bring the suspect to a halt.
ABC13 Eyewitness News
(5/04/05 - HOUSTON) — Police chased a suspected purse snatcher and it all ended in a dramatic way Wednesday morning.

The pursuit started about 9am at the Wal-Mart on North Main in Pearland and ended near Highway 288 in a field near a Houston Community College satellite campus.


It ended after the suspect drove the minivan into a drainage ditch near Airport.

Pearland police say this all started with a purse snatching in the Wal-Mart parking lot. The suspect got onto FM 518 and headed west towards the freeway. Authorities say he was driving at speeds up to 100 miles per hour, nearly hitting several vehicles as he was speeding on Highway 288.

Police say a female suspect was arrested in the water of the drainage ditch moments after the van came to a stop. The driver took off running on foot and was slightly struck by a police vehicle. He was quickly taken into custody. There is no word on the extent of his injuries. He was taken by ambulance to a local hospital.

The way the chase ended is now being investigated.

"It's been raining this morning. As (the officer) was applying the brakes, it did slide, striking the suspect. The officer then apprehended him and then notified a dispatcher to call emergency personnel to the scene, as well as a supervisor," said Officer Rick Fernandez with the Pearland Police Department.

Both suspects are facing several charges, including aggravated robbery and felony evading arrest. Authorities believe the minivan the suspects were in may be stolen.

There were no other injuries during the chase.

Authorities plan on taking a look at the officer's dashboard camera as part of the investigation of how the suspect was struck.
(Copyright © 2005, KTRK-TV)

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/050405_local_chase.html

 

[mete]

I saw the video ,it was done perfectly. I'll bet he hardly got a bruise.It appeared that he was struck, at low speed, by the side of the fender . He went down and rolled over.

 

[Vernal45]

METE,

I agree, it looks like the officer was not at fault, the suspect zigged when he should have zagged.

 

[Deavis]

Come on, that truck didn't slide into him, that officer hit him. To me, it looks like that truck has anti-lock brakes but it is hard to tell from the video quality. I'm not berating the guy for hitting him but it just didn't look like he tried to avoid him at all.

That is an awful lot of work for a purse snatching, but it is Pearland

 

[Preacherman]

The driver took off running on foot and was slightly struck by a police vehicle.

Love that description!

Judging from the video, the truck was skidding on the damp soil - you can see the skid tracks behind it. The BG got clipped, but not really struck head-on. He's lucky, I guess.

 

[Ukraine Train]

The truck was also nearly airborn going over those ruts. Hard to stop when you're tires aren't on the ground hehe. Guy got what he deserved, it did look like a pretty hard hit, though. Wouldn't be surprised if he broke his leg.

 

[beerslurpy]

I'm batting 1000 today!

 

[Jeff White]

It seems like no matter how badly they crash at the end of the chase, they always are in good enough shape to get out and run on foot.

Was chasing a local meth head on his motorcyle one night, he turns into the gravel parking lot of a livestock sale barn and loses the bike in the gravel, huge cloud of dust and you can se the lights of the bike going end over end...I'm starting to call for an ambulance when my parter says 10-22, he running through the field on foot. He hit the gravel at somewhat above 70 mph, lost the bike, and came up running, not even much road rash when we caught him...

Jeff

 

[Rovi]

There was a report in our local paper a few years ago, about a guy who stole a van and led the police (Gardaí) a merry dance until his capture. He drove at high speed down main street and crossed a major road several times at similar high speeds, forcing oncoming traffic off the road and damaging parked vehicles
Luckily, no-one was seriously hurt.

He was finally apprehended on foot in the middle of a several acre knee deep pond on a construction site. According to the police statement at his trial, "he resisted, and had to be restrained"


.

 

[itgoesboom]

Saw something similar while I was working as a salesman at an electronics store...

Guy took a stereo, and took off running, with several of us in chase, we chased him across a busy road (4 lanes each side), onto a large parking lot.

The guy in the front of the chase was about 30 feet behind him, gaining slowly, when all of a sudden a dodge neon comes flying through the parking lot, and skids in front of the thief. Thief decided to do the "dukes of hazard hood slide", but missed, and ended up under the front tire.

The driver was one of our warehouse workers, who always reminded me of Shrek. Amazingly, the thief continued to fight after being pulled out from under the car, and "Shrek" started tossing him around.....

It was quite humorous.

I.G.B.