A bizarre chase and standoff with a 42-year-old driver in a tractor-trailer ended Wednesday with Texas deputies tearing open the truck's cab and pulling the suspect from his vehicle.
The incident began shortly after 12:40 p.m. when a Harris County sheriff's deputy observed a tractor-trailer stopped in a middle lane of traffic along a Houston highway, KPRC-TV reports. A low-speed chase ensued, with the tractor-trailer swerving and changing lanes.
Stop sticks were used to bring the tractor-trailer to a halt, and deputies surrounded the vehicle. A standoff continued, even as a SWAT team used tear gas and other methods to get the driver to surrender.
“They tried numerous things, deploying gas, deploying less-lethal, verbal commands, gave him every option to come, and he remained resistant the entire time, did not answer any commands or anything like that so at some point they had to physically position themselves as safely as possible to extract him out,” said Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
Finally, a battered ram was used to rip open the tractor-trailer's cab, and the driver was pulled out at about 4 p.m. Officials said they're unsure what led to the chase and the standoff, and the suspect appeared to be impaired when deputies reached him.
“He appeared to be behind the wheel just appearing to be like in a glaze, just revving the truck like if he was driving,” Gonzalez said.
The driver suffered facial cuts in the incident, and no other injuries were reported. Gonzalez praised the response by deputies during what turned out to be an unusual incident.
“Especially because he continued to resist even with the deployment of gas, most people with that, it’s really pretty toxic, they are going to come out pretty quickly, and it didn’t seem to phase him,” the sheriff said.
“I am glad we were able to intervene, because if he would have remained on the roadway, other people could have been at serious risk,” Gonzalez added.
