HOUSTON – Two friends put their own lives in danger to stop a suspected carjacker cold. Police say instead of letting the crook take off, those victims chased him down and opened fire right along the highway.
Right now, traffic is flowing smoothly, but there was a near standstill Monday afternoon. A carjacking suspect took a bullet right from one of the guys whose car he was trying to steal.
"They just gave him a stomping, which I think he deserved for stealing people's stuff," said witness Dorris Baloney.
She was nearby with her family and heard the gunshot. Several men had been eating nearby when they watched a man steal a truck with the motorcycles in the back. They chased the suspected thief and caused him to crash into a guardrail on I-10 near Normandy Street. The thief headed across the feeder road.
"One of them had a pistol and fired one time at him and struck him. He fell down, they brought him back up here to the scene where an officer working an extra job at the hospital put him in custody," said Sgt. C.R. Bean with the Houston Police Department.
The suspect now faces auto theft charges. The man who shot the theft suspect isn't in trouble with the law because he was worried the thief had a gun.
"Under Texas law, any time it's a threat, you are in fear of your life, you are able to defend yourself," said Sgt. Bean.
When we asked the sergeant if the victim thought the suspect had a weapon on him, he replied, "I believe so, yes."
The suspect was shot in the wrist and transported to Ben Taub General Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Emergency crews blocked three inbound lanes of the East Freeway while they investigated. All lanes re-opened around 1:45 p.m.