HOUSTON – A woman led police on a chase that ended on Highway 59 near the split with I-45.
Police said the driver of a white Lincoln fled from police, but it's unclear why the driver, identified as Deerika Lashay Jefferson, 27,did not stop.
Just before 11 a.m. Monday, Bellaire police received calls complaining of a driver forcing other cars off the 610 West Loop. When a Bellaire officer attempted to pull Jefferson over near Bellaire Boulevard and the West Loop, she fled, according to police
Jefferson led about 15 patrol cars from the Bellaire and Houston police departments on a chase from Bellaire to the Southwest Freeway that streaked by the Channel 2 studio near Highway 59 and Beechnut.
Jefferson then headed north on the Southwest Freeway toward downtown Houston.
During the chase, which lasted about half an hour, police say Jefferson struck a police car that pulled in front of her attempting to stop her. Police say she also hit a retaining wall and struck several other cars.
Chris McHaffey said the white Lincoln sideswiped his car near the intersection of Highway 59 and I-45.
“I was just coming up to the merge and the white car came out of nowhere and hit me from the left,” McHaffey said.
Jefferson finally stopped seconds later when she collided with a parked Houston ISD police car shortly before 11:30 a.m.
The HISD ;police officer had pulled over to the side of the freeway to help a stranded driver.
"So I turned around and I see a car flying next to me. So I got up and started running toward my truck with my dad and my mom and my little brother inside," Alejandro Gonzalez, who also stopped to help the stranded driver, said.
He said Jefferson walked away from the crash uninjured.
"She was really shook up. I ran toward her, I asked her if she was OK. I tried to pull her to the side," Gonzalez said.
But police were right behind her and Jefferson was taken into custody. She is expected to face a felony charge of evading arrest. Jefferson has a criminal history that includes an arrest for drug possession and a conviction for misdemeanor theft.
Investigators also say they have concerns about Jefferson's mental state. Spotting a Channel 2 camera at the accident scene, she blew kisses through the open window of a police car as she was driven away. Police say when she arrived at the Bellaire police station, she began singing the national anthem.