NEWS: Houston Police Run Over Purse Snatching Suspect

A suspected purse snatcher who fled a Houston-area Wal-Mart store led police on a chase that ended after the suspect drove into a drainage ditch and left the vehicle. The chasing police car wasn't able to stop and hit the suspect. The man was immediately arrested and emergency medical personnel were called to the scene, and it appears that he sustained only minor injuries. The Pearland police are investigating the situation.



From the video of this on television, it appears that the police may have run over the suspect twice as the vehicle went past him. If that's the case, he's lucky he didn't have serious injuries. The area was muddy, so it's believable that the policeman tried to stop the vehicle but wasn't able to.


[edit on 5/5/2005 by djohnsto77]

I don't feel sorry at all. The police are everywhere, you cannot escape, once they start radioing, and chasing you in vehicles, you better give up, because you've just stirred up a hornets nest and you ain't got no bug spray!


How can I force myself to have sympathy for a dumb ass?

Because purse snatching isnt a potentially capital crime hence nearly dying over it is a bit harsh.

but running from the cops is ok?...it was wet....they didnt hit him purposely...it was an accident....the cop called for an ambulance...what else is there to say?...good job if i may say so....

good..... Well done, stand him back up and do it again !

He ran and hence caused the chase, and put a lot of people in danger.
I feel sorry for the cops who had to go through this stress.

Here in TX, when you run, no matter what crime you were being stopped for, the moment you flee from a Police Officer, it becomes felony evading.

The video tape will clear the cop, they just need to verify the time the brakelights came on, factor in weather and reaction time and then he'll be fine.

Scumbag will try to sue him anyway, but won't get much if anything, but he'll still try to sue.

X

Why is this on ATSNN? A cop car barely and accidentally hits a purse snatcher who is fleeing. If this is news to y'all, you need to come check out the 10 o'clock news here in Houston on any given day.

Zip

Zipdot, the video of the incident was quite graphic and was all over the national news, I don't think this is an everyday happening. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find the footage online.

As tired as I am of police abuse, this cop really just got a piece of this guy and he didnt look like he wanted to do it. It looks a lot worse than it was.


I will say this bout running, its silly 1 and ten get away, but people fear the police because we see the beating suspects all the time. The philly guy that WAS abused teo days ago had done NOTHING, feel he really was scared, for good reason.

[edit on 5-5-2005 by SpittinCobra]

Originally posted by djohnsto77
Zipdot, the video of the incident was quite graphic and was all over the national news, I don't think this is an everyday happening. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find the footage online.

Sorry, I didn't mean to make it seem like I was calling you out or anything.

I once saw an "uncensored police videos" video that showed a cop car chasing a guy on a stolen motorcyle. The guy on the bike runs for awhile and then decides to give up. He puts an arm up in the air and hits the brakes on his bike. The cop can't stop in time and hits the bike, the guy falls off the bike, and the tire runs over the guy, killing him. This wasn't made into a big deal by the television media at the time. I can't even recall hearing about it at all.

The media sucks.

Zip

he was still wiggling, back over him again.

With any luck that cop will be charged with assault with a deadly weapon. What he did was completely out of line and he could have severely injured or killed the purse snatcher. Personally I hope the cop does time for what he did. At a minimum he needs to lose his job over it.

Originally posted by Indy
With any luck that cop will be charged with assault with a deadly weapon. What he did was completely out of line and he could have severely injured or killed the purse snatcher. Personally I hope the cop does time for what he did. At a minimum he needs to lose his job over it.

Why?

Like it has been pointed out, the crime escalated when the criminal attempted to flee the police, thus putting the lives of inocent civilians in jepordy.

you can't prove that the cop deliberately ran over him.

What, no Taser?

The cop totally should have done a drive by, and either opened the door or shot dude with a Taser.

That would not only have been less dangerous for the perp, it would have been much more entertaining to watch for all us media voyeurs.

And no, the cop shouldn't do time, and he shouldn't lose his job, not IMO anyway.

If the evidence shows the cop acted recklessly behind the wheel, sit him at a desk and let him play paper work monkey until retirement. That would be justice in my opinion.

Often people miss the point in cases like this. The cop shouldn't have done anything special. He has a procedure to follow. The perp, however, should have respected his own life and the cop's authority and given up if he didn't want matters to be escalated to a point that such dangers were possibilities.

Zip

Quick, let's demonize the police and make their jobs EVEN HARDER!

This is why liberals occasionally make me sick. The rest of the time, it's the conservatives. I hate everyone, but especially police-bashers. However, the consensus seems to be 'back over him again', which makes me proud of ATS.

This is just another dig at officers- perp does somethign reckless and stupid, police give chase and because of the suspect's decision, someone gets hurt.

Obviously, it's the officer's fault he decided to run and endanger lives.



DE

I'm very happy to see that the people at ATS aren't as insane as the people who live in my fair city. Without fail, every time there is an accident during a police chase here, people start screaming 'outlaw police chases'.

Huh?

Years ago, I witnessed a high-speed chase involving a stolen corvette, and it ended in an accident. I was amazed at how many people flat out lied about the distance between the cruiser and the vette and the speeds reached, while giving a statement to the investigators.

This officer is probably very lucky this was caught on tape.

It's about time a recorded police chase might benefit the police officer.

It's so easy for whiners. It really is. It's so easy for them to sit at home and see something like this and scream "Fire the cop, he hit that guy."

What's sad is that the chorus of whiners has no idea what real life is. They have no idea what it is to have to chase someone at high speeds, running through red lights. Coming within inches of hitting other cars, or pedestrians, or poles etc. When you run from the police you are putting yourself, the police, and EVERY CIVILIAN IN THE AREA in danger.

You say that it was a minor crime? Fine. You stole a purse, the police caught you. You're gonna escalate it now and singlehandedly put all drivers and pedestrians in a city into danger.

It's so easy to complain about the police. You don't like them do you? They wrote you a parking ticket, they pulled you over for speeding. Rotten cops, right?

Keep crippling them at their job and see how much fun you have walking home from the local bar at 2AM. People forget the old days so easily.

First of all, I'm glad the cop got his man.

Second, the cop should be ticketed and assigned desk duty temporarily for "following too close for present road conditions". After all, if it was you or me, we would get such a ticket. The cop should be given one too.

As for all of you congratulating the cop, his job is to ENFORCE the law and not hand out sentencing. That is why we have a Judicial branch of government. I agree, accidents can and do happen. But this cop should be ticketed just as he would do to any civilian.