Grapevine officer shoots 4 rounds at stolen pickup truck driven by teen, police say
A Grapevine officer shot four rounds toward a stolen pickup truck driven by a 15-year-old boy who was leading officers in a chase that would eventually end in Southlake on Wednesday morning, police said.
The teen, whose identity wasn’t released due to his juvenile status, had reportedly pulled into a cul-de-sac in Grapevine when the shooting occurred. An officer had gotten out of his car to walk toward the truck, police said in a news release, and the teen started driving in his direction.
The officer fired four shots, two of them hitting the truck, “because he thought he was going to get hit by the truck,” police said. The teen wasn’t struck.
The officer also was uninjured in the incident and has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation, police said. A Grapevine police spokesperson told the Star-Telegram in an email the department “thoroughly reviews all use of force incidents.”
The teen was arrested in Southlake around 8:20 a.m. after crashing the truck and running into a backyard, police said. He was taken to Baylor Scott and White Medical Center in Grapevine for treatment of a bite from a police dog.
It’s expected that multiple charges will be filed against the teen, police said.
Officers were initially alerted around 7:05 a.m. of a crash at the side-by-side SH-114/SH-121 highways in which a teenage driver had struck the middle barrier, police said. He was reportedly in a stolen vehicle.
A witness went to help him and call 911, police said, but the teen then stole that man’s truck.
He drove away and another witness followed him until police were able to locate the suspect, according to the news release.
At one point, the teen drove into a cul-de-sac in Grapevine’s Chaparral Court, which was when the shooting occurred, police said.
He continued to drive away from police, the department said, leading them across multiple cities before he crashed near Moss Lane and East Dove Road in Southlake. He left the truck behind and ran through a Southlake neighborhood, where people saw him go into a backyard.
Police set up a perimeter around the home as they began looking for him with the help of the Texas Department of Public Safety Air-One helicopter searching from above, the department said.
They were able to locate him and arrest him, police said.
The Grapevine Fire Department as well as the Southlake police and fire departments assisted on Wednesday morning.
The police spokesperson said officers “will consider all evidence and circumstances surrounding this morning’s incident as part of the internal investigation.”
