Police open fire during chase in Memorial Villages

Houston police are investigating a chase in west Houston. (Dale Lezon) Houston police are investigating a chase in west Houston. (Dale Lezon) Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Police open fire during chase in Memorial Villages 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Police opened fire on a man and woman in a pickup during a chase in the Memorial Villages Friday morning.

No injuries were reported. The suspects were taken into custody after they crashed their pickup during the chase.

The chase began as a police officer was monitoring traffic with his radar gun about 9 a.m. at 9500 Westheimer, said Jodi Silva, a spokesman for the Houston Police Department.

Silva said the officer spotted a gray pickup traveling at a high rate of speed and tried to stop it, but the driver sped away. The officer followed him.

At one point, Silva said, the officer lost sight of the truck. The officer parked his squad car on the side of the street where he had last seen the pickup, waiting to see if the truck would pass by the same route. Sure enough, Silva said, a short time later the officer spotted the truck passing him and gave chase again.

Silva said the chase meandered through several neighborhoods in the Memorial Villages. Then the truck veered from the road and got stuck in a ditch in the 11900 block of Taylorcrest near J Star in the City of Bunker Hill Village.

By then, Silva said, officers with the Memorial Villages Police Department had joined the pursuit. The officers got out of their patrol cars to try to pulled the driver from the truck. But the suspect revved his engine. Fearing for their safety and the safety of other officers, an HPD officer and a Memorial Village officer each fired more than one shot toward the truck, Silva said.

It is unknown if the truck was hit by the gunfire.

The suspect, however, managed to dislodge the mired pickup and sped away again. The officers again chased him.

Silva said the chase ended when the driver crashed the pickup into a pole on Gessner and near Tanner about 10:30 a.m.

The man and woman jumped out of the truck and tried to run away, but officers captured them a short time later.

Silva said officers found stolen items inside the truck, though investigators declined to disclose what was found. A gun was discovered along the chase route in The Memorial Villages, but it was not known if the suspects had tossed it of the truck during the pursuit.

People who saw the truck crash and the suspects arrested said it was an odd sight to see.

Oscar Maldonado, 25, said he was near the crash site applying for a job when he saw the truck traveling on Gessner and police cars chasing it. He said the truck was coming upon several cars near Tanner and tried to avoid the traffic, but veered off the road and slammed into the pole. Then he saw a man and woman jump out and run. Officers ran after them and arrested them. He had never seen anything like it.

"It's strange for me," he said.

As is customary when police officers open fire, the HPD Internal Affairs and Homicide divisions will investigate the case.