ABC News/KTRK-TV(HOUSTON) — Five children are in big trouble after leading police on a short chase in a stolen truck and then crashing it into two other cars, leaving an elderly woman seriously injured.
The incident occurred on Monday at approximately 3:30 p.m. in Houston, Texas when an off-duty police officer caught a strange sight on W. Sam Houston Parkway Beltway, according to ABC News’ Houston station KTRK-TV.
“I was just going picking up my daughter from daycare, and as I looked over my right shoulder and saw these kids in a truck,” said off-duty Houston Police Department officer Dekendrick Spears. “The driver noticed and he looked shocked … he slowed down to about 10, maybe 15 MPH on the beltway which I thought was odd.”
The driver? A 14-year-old boy. The passengers? Four other juveniles aged 11 and 13.
Spears immediately called in the plates and discovered that the vehicle was stolen and proceeded to follow the car in his personal vehicle until support patrol units could catch up.
“When you mix young kids and cars, you rarely have good outcomes,” Chief of Vehicular Crimes Division Sean Teare told KTRK.
And it didn’t.
When the 14-year-old driver caught sight of the incoming police officers he decided to speed through a residential neighborhood as well as a stop sign.
Only moments later, the vehicle with the five kids in it struck a Lexus driven by an older woman followed by a Tundra truck with a fourth grader and his mother inside.
Caleb Nunez, a fourth grader, and his mother were in the first vehicle that was hit and told KTRK about what he saw.
“We were driving there. Then, the car stops, a sudden jerk, and we’re spinning around uncontrollably,” Caleb said. “Then I saw a police officer running after the guys in the truck.”
Said Caleb’s mother: “He t-boned us straight on, probably at about 60 MPH, spun the Toyota Tundra and we landed on the opposite side of the street … We are just thanking the Lord that it wasn’t any worse for us.”
Police quickly caught the 14-year-old driver and the four other passengers and all of them were sent to hospitals and checked out.
The elderly woman in the Lexus was transported to the hospital with serious injuries.
Teare said the 14-year-old driver is expected to be charged with two felony charges of aggravated assault and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
“Having a 10-year-old myself,” said one neighbor. “That kind of makes it pretty real.”
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