Bedford police arrest truck theft suspect hiding in gas station ceiling after standoff
After a standoff that lasted several hours, police arrested a man accused of stealing a truck and barricading himself inside a Shell gas station in Bedford on Monday.
Around 12:30 p.m., Bedford police received a call about a stolen vehicle at the Shell station at 2001 Murphy Road. Witnesses told police the suspect went into the store and was armed and dangerous, police said in a news release.
Officers negotiated with the suspect for over two hours, but he refused to come out of the business, police said. After several hours, a SWAT team safely breached the store, found the man in the ceiling and arrested him without further incident.
No one was taken hostage and there were no shots fired in the store, according to police.
The suspect’s name has not been released. Police said more information will be released once he has been arraigned.
Roads in the area were temporarily closed during the investigation.
Tarrant County sheriff’s deputies had an encounter with the suspect earlier Monday during a welfare check, according to a news release.
At 7:45 a.m., a deputy responded to the 4300 block of Burleson Retta Road in south unincorporated Tarrant County. A male driver in a black Toyota Corolla was parked in the road and acting erratically, according to the release.
During his contact with the deputy, the driver sped away and a brief pursuit occurred. The deputy lost sight of the vehicle and the pursuit was terminated.
At 9:52 a.m., deputies were dispatched to a stolen vehicle call in south Tarrant County. A 2017 brown Ford truck was stolen from Larkwood Lane, and the black Toyota Corolla was abandoned nearby. The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office sent out an alert to area agencies regarding the stolen vehicle and asked them to be on the lookout for it. The stolen Ford truck was later found at the Shell station in Bedford.
This story was originally published May 24, 2021 at 6:19 PM.
