Chase, hostage situation ends in apparent suicide in north Houston

HOUSTON – A man who led police on a chase in a stolen U-Haul killed himself after a standoff with Houston police officers, police said.

The chase and standoff began Monday night and ended early Tuesday morning in north Houston, police said.

The armed man barricaded himself and a woman in the stolen van near the intersection of East 32nd Street and the 3300 block of Omega Street in the Independence Heights neighborhood, according to authorities.

It is unclear how the chase started.

During the chase, the man stopped the van and threatened to kill the woman and forced her out of the van while holding a gun, police said.

The man led the woman through a vacant lot to Hinton Street, police said. As officers followed behind the man, he opened fire to prevent them from following him.

HPD Chief Art Acevedo tweeted that the man fired a shot during the standoff, but police said officers did not return fire.

No officers were injured.

The man and woman ended up at a residential vacant lot, where they entered a parked red Honda CRX, police said. The man barricaded himself inside the Honda while holding the woman hostage, police said.

The SWAT and hostage negotiation teams were called to the scene. 

Several hours into the standoff, the man released the woman he was holding. 

She was not injured.

SWAT officers were able to deploy a canister of gas into the Honda and the suspect shot and killed himself shortly after, police said.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.