6 killed after police pursuit near Houston ends in dramatic crash

USPA News - A high-speed police pursuit near the U.S. city of Houston came to a dramatic conclusion Sunday night when the SUV being chased slammed into another vehicle at an intersection, killing both the suspects and four innocent people, Texas police said Monday. The incident began at about 8:20 p.m. local time when an officer tried to pull over a Dodge Durango after the vehicle was observed swerving and running without headlights on a road in Dickinson, a city in Galveston County about 45 miles (28 kilometers) southeast of Houston.

The SUV took off with speeds exceeding 100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour. About 10 minutes later, at approximately 8:30 p.m., as the pursuit continued in nearby League City, the Dodge Durango disregarded a stop sign at an intersection and crashed into a Honda Accord, causing the vehicles to careen across the road, drive through a ditch and through some brush before coming to a halt. Emergency services rushed to the scene but all six occupants were pronounced dead on arrival. "There were four people in the Honda Accord, a 38-year-old female, 41-year-old male, 26-year-old male, and a juvenile. The juvenile is believed to have been 15 years old," League City Police Department spokeswoman Reagan Pena said. "There were two men in the Durango. The driver was 23 years old, and the date of birth is unknown at this time for the passenger." Dickinson Police Captain Jay Jaekel told the Galveston County Daily News that the officer who was carrying out the pursuit was not hurt, but "was pretty shook up by what he saw." Jaekel said the crash scene "is one of the worse I have ever seen myself." It was not immediately known why the driver of the Dodge Durango decided to flee. Sunday`s crash came nearly a year after a similar crash in Texas, in which six people were also killed. That crash, which happened on August 12, 2013, happened when a stolen pickup truck being chased by the Texas Highway Patrol struck three vehicles at an intersection near the border with Mexico. Several people, including the suspect, survived.