Two Suspects Dead After Ellis County Police Chase
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ITALY (CBSDFW.COM) - An hours-long police chase involving two men ended in a barrage of gunfire, and the two suspects dead, along Interstate-35E in Ellis County. The Texas Department of Public Safety reported that the incident initially began just after 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday night.
A police officer in Italy had conducted a traffic stop on a 1999 Saab along Highway 34, and was in the process of putting the suspects in handcuffs. "The officer attempted to take the two occupants into custody," said Sgt. Lonny Haschel with the Texas DPS. "The suspects assaulted the Italy officer, injuring him, and stole the Italy Police Department's Chevrolet Tahoe."
After a long pursuit, the police vehicle was hit with spike strips at around 11:15 p.m. and stopped along the interstate in Italy, south of Forreston Road. Officers then began to negotiate with the suspects over their police radio, but reportedly were not listening to requests to surrender during this lengthy standoff.
During talks with police, one of the men had threatened suicide.
Haschel said that police officers heard a gunshot come from inside of the police SUV, and then saw the driver exit with a weapon in his hand. That suspect was shot and killed by police at the scene. The other suspect was found dead inside of the vehicle.
"You never know, you walk up to a vehicle, you don't know who's in that vehicle. You don't know how those stops are gonna go," says Italy Police Chief Shawn Martin.
The two suspects had said that they were brothers. Their names have not yet been released. Police have also not stated why the men were originally stopped.
The officer who was injured during the original confrontation was not seriously hurt. He was treated at a local hospital and is expected to be just fine. No other officers were injured during this incident.
"We're standing behind our officers on this and we're gonna get thru it," Mayor Steven Farmer said Wednesday afternoon.
Authorities at the scene shut down Interstate-35E in both directions early Wednesday while the investigation was being conducted. The highway was opened back up to traffic after 12 hours.
"We're going to look at video. We're going to look at the actual transcript of the radio conversation, physical evidence at the scene with the police car. There's a whole bunch of pieces to this puzzle that have to be put into place," Haschel said early Wednesday. "It's going to take some time for Texas Rangers to do the investigation."
Retired FBI negotiator Max Howard said he couldn't find any fault with the way the Ellis Co. Sheriff's Office negotiator handled the situation.
"He had a conversational tone, a helpful tone, he did not talk fast," Howard said. "He gave the other person an opportunity to answer. He realized this was not an adversarial situation."
Based on their action leading up the standoff, and recordings of the negotiation heard over police radios, Howard said there were early signs the brothers did not intend to leave the situation alive. Investigators recognize that he said, but don't give up.
"Means the odds are against us, but a negotiator's trained to never give up, as long as he's talking with the person," says Howard.
CBS11's Jason Allen contributed to this report.
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