Photo: Houston Police Department
A news truck and a police cruiser were involved in a rather strange accident in Houston, at the intersection of Texas and Chartres Streets, NBC News reports.
The news van, belonging to NBC affiliate KPRC, was hit by another car at the intersection. Inside the van were reporter Sofia Ojeda and photographer Damon Sales, both strapped in their seatbelts, which, Sales argues, was the only thing that stopped the other driver from carjacking the van.
Because that’s exactly what he tried to do after the crash. He got out of the car and went over to the driver’s side of the van, urging Sales to get out.
“He said, ‘I'm stealing your vehicle. I'm stealing your vehicle’,” Sales recalls. “He tried to pull me out. We're buckled in, and he's like, ‘Get out! Get out! Get out!’”
A police cruiser happening to pass by pulled over, with one officer coming out to see if there’d been any victims in the accident. That’s when the attacker, who appeared to be drunk, went for the cop. He hit her and sent her to the ground, and removed the other officer, also a woman, from the driver’s seat.
He then made away in the police cruiser, with an underage suspect in the back. “He was let out by the carjacker a few blocks away and the young suspect flagged another police car,” NBC News says. The same media outlet reports that the police eventually caught up with the driver about 7 hours later, after receiving a call from campus security from the University of Houston. They had found the abandoned police cruiser in a wooded area some hours before.
The 2 police officers and the 2 journalists were taken to the hospital for minor injuries. Damage to the news van was limited to the side where the drunk driver hit it with his car, but the police cruiser wasn’t damaged. As for the car the suspect initially drove, it had been stolen a couple of hours before the incident.
Because that’s exactly what he tried to do after the crash. He got out of the car and went over to the driver’s side of the van, urging Sales to get out.
“He said, ‘I'm stealing your vehicle. I'm stealing your vehicle’,” Sales recalls. “He tried to pull me out. We're buckled in, and he's like, ‘Get out! Get out! Get out!’”
A police cruiser happening to pass by pulled over, with one officer coming out to see if there’d been any victims in the accident. That’s when the attacker, who appeared to be drunk, went for the cop. He hit her and sent her to the ground, and removed the other officer, also a woman, from the driver’s seat.
He then made away in the police cruiser, with an underage suspect in the back. “He was let out by the carjacker a few blocks away and the young suspect flagged another police car,” NBC News says. The same media outlet reports that the police eventually caught up with the driver about 7 hours later, after receiving a call from campus security from the University of Houston. They had found the abandoned police cruiser in a wooded area some hours before.
The 2 police officers and the 2 journalists were taken to the hospital for minor injuries. Damage to the news van was limited to the side where the drunk driver hit it with his car, but the police cruiser wasn’t damaged. As for the car the suspect initially drove, it had been stolen a couple of hours before the incident.
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