Sheriff and Police Take Down Shotgun Wielding Subject Following High Speed Chase and Crash

SAN ANGELO, TX — At 7:49 p.m., a Tom Green County Sheriff’s Deputy attempted to make a traffic stop on a speeding vehicle just north of the city limits. The speeding vehicle did not stop and its driver led the deputy on a high speed chase through north San Angelo, San Angelo Police Department Spokeswoman Tracy Piatt-Fox said. During the pursuit, a Texas DPS trooper joined the chase. Piatt-Fox said the chase ended when the suspect vehicle collided with the DPS trooper’s car. The trooper was not injured.

Following the collision at W. Shiloh, the access road to the Houston Harte Expressway’s westbound lanes, and N. Monroe, the driver left the three other subjects inside the vehicle and fled on foot and was armed with a shotgun into the alleyway behind the residences on N. Monroe.

Piatt-Fox said a resident called 9-1-1 and reported a man “running with a shotgun.” A second call to emergency dispatch told police the man was in their backyard and presumably armed. A sheriff’s deputy and a San Angelo police officer found the suspect in the backyard of a residence in the 700 block of N. Madison. She said the suspect was “brandishing a shotgun.”

“Gunfire was exchanged and the suspect was fatally wounded,” Piatt-Fox said.

WATCH: San Angelo police describe the incident:

One San Angelo police officer was wounded by shotgun pellets and the injuries are not estimated by police to be life-threatening.

Piatt-Fox would not identify the type of vehicle that was involved in the chase and refused answering further questions until the Texas Rangers completed their investigation of the officer-involved shooting.

Flanking Piatt-Fox during the press briefing were Sgt, Justin Baker of the Texas DPS, Sheriff David Jones, Chief Deputy Nick Hanna, and San Angelo Police Department officer John Bouligny, None of those with her volunteered more information. Piatt-Fox did not say from what agency the officer who shot and killed the suspect was, however if an SAPD and Tom Green County Sheriff’s deputy were both pursuing the shotgun-wielding suspect and ending up in a gun battle, it may not be absolutely known which officer’s bullets killed the suspect.

The dead suspect was not named. However, Piatt-Fox said the three passengers in the fleeing vehicle did not leave the vehicle, but stayed inside. Two of those passengers had outstanding warrants and failed to identify themselves. Both were arrested.

A San Angelo police Ford Interceptor was also seen being loaded on a flatbed wrecker and taken from the scene. Piatt-Fox did not know any details of the circumstances of the police cruiser’s towing. Crime tape surrounds the backyard where the shooting took place.

The Texas Rangers investigation will take weeks if not months, based upon previous incidents like this.