Suspect drowns in bayou during police chase

Here's a tip: If you ever fall into a life of crime, make sure you don't fall into a bayou when the cops catch up with you. It's a lesson one man probably should have learned before he jumped into White Oak Bayou downtown during a chase Wednesday. According to Harris County sheriff's deputies, the man was posing as a parking attendant in a parking lot on Travis Street near Franklin, collecting $5 from people who were using the lot. A citizen noticed him and flagged a deputy down around 6 p.m.; when the deputy confronted the fake attendant, the man reportedly pushed the deputy and the two began fighting. The deputy then shocked the man with a Taser, but it didn't stop him: He took off on foot, pursued by the deputy and a Metro police officer.

The suspect and cops ran past Jose Salgado, who recorded part of the chase using his video phone. Eventually, the group reached the bayou near UH-Downtown: "[The suspect] stopped, started walking and then disappeared under the bridge," Salgado told Channel 2. Sheriff's Lt. John Denholm said people think White Oak Bayou is shallow in that area because it's narrow, but that isn't really the case — as the suspect found out. When it became obvious that the man was drowning, the Metro cop tried to save him, but failed.

A dive team recovered the man's body around 9 p.m. His identity hasn't been released, but police said his record showed that he had been charged with evading arrest three times and resisting arrest once.