Crime spree/chase shuts down SW Freeway

As the saying goes, there's nothing like a crime spree/police chase to end the week with a bang. And we had a pretty good one this morning that started when an armed man and woman tried to rob and carjack a man in southwest Houston. The attempted robbery happened near Brighton Lane and Murphy Road; the couple fired a shot and grazed the victim, then left the scene. On their way out, they hit a car at Murphy and Highway 59, which led a Meadows Place police officer to try to pull them over.

The couple, of course, didn't pull over — instead, they tried to get away. As police got close to them near Dairy Ashford, the man in the couple pulled a gun and began shooting at the cop. A bullet hit the police car's window and hit the officer in the shoulder; he was taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital in stable condition. The couple them pulled into a gas station, where they carjacked a customer's truck.

"They robbed another man of his vehicle and left from there," said Chief B.R. Krahn with the Stafford Police Department. "Other Meadows officers came along. They were helping the officer that was shot. They got in the patrol car and commenced to chasing."

The second leg of the police chase ended near Highway 59 and Highway 6 after police and the couple traded gunfire. A police bullet blew out the truck's back tire, which made the truck spin out of control, hit another vehicle and crash into the freeway guardrail. The woman jumped out of the truck and tried to run away — which is, by the way, never a good idea — and she was caught later when an undercover officer bumped her with his car. The man, who was driving the truck, was caught at the scene. Highway 59 was shut down in the area until about 12:30 p.m.