WATCH: Video shows West 7th police chase of suspected drunk driver who injured pedestrians
A Fort Worth police officer in the West 7th entertainment district Saturday night turned on his red and blue emergency lights. The driver of a pickup truck had just tried to go the wrong direction on a one-way street and then sloppily corrected, backing up onto the curb and lightly hitting the officer’s vehicle, video shows.
Had he pulled over, 29-year-old Andrew Guerra probably would have been arrested for driving while intoxicated. Instead, police say he is the driver in video that shows a pickup truck leading police on a chase in which at one point he was driving with a tire blown out and the rim sending sparks flying.
It ended with two pedestrians and an uninvolved vehicle hit by Guerra’s truck, authorities say.
The pedestrians — a man and a woman — were taken to the hospital in critical condition and Guerra sustained “significant injuries,” Fort Worth police Sgt. Jason Spencer said at a news conference Monday.
The chase
It started about 10 p.m. when an officer working in the entertainment district saw a dark-colored Chevrolet Silverado exiting a parking lot at 1000 Foch St., video from the police car’s dashboard camera and city surveillance cameras shows. The driver tried to take the truck across Foch Street and the wrong way onto Morton Street, a one-way road. The truck backed up, with the arm of a passenger seen sticking out the open window with a hand on the roof, and up onto a curb.
The truck tries to pull forward again and appears to bump the officer’s police SUV, causing it to shake a little. The truck quickly accelerates and makes a sharp left turn back into the parking lot, and the officer backs up and activates the red and blue lights atop the vehicle. It’s the beginning of a chase that would last just over three minutes.
“Yeah,” the officer can be heard saying in the video. He sounds both disappointed and unsurprised.
The officer follows the driver into the parking lot, turning past the Chimy’s restaurant sign, and the truck speeds up. When the truck turns out of the parking lot, the driver again goes the wrong way, this time down Foch Street toward West 7th Street, tires screeching as the driver hits the gas.
“He’s refusing to get out and now he’s taking off — he’s going the wrong way,” the officer says into his radio.
Less than 20 seconds after turning left to head down West 7th toward downtown, the driver hits another curb and an officer on the other side of the street turns on his lights and sirens to join the new pursuit. The officer who initially tried to stop the truck says the driver is going about 50 mph down the 35 mph road.
The truck weaves through traffic after crossing the railroad tracks and swerves wildly, striking another curb at the intersection with Stayton Street and nearly hitting a car. Crossing the West 7th Street bridge heading toward downtown, the officer announces that the speed has hit 80 mph.
Surveillance video released by police shows the truck cut across the road, into oncoming traffic, and hop a curb into the Bank of Texas parking lot after crossing the bridge. Guerra blows out his left front tire tire, sending sparks as the truck continues driving and heads back onto West 7th Street.
“One wheel is gone. He’s about to bail out, I think,” the officer says in the video. “Let’s wait ‘till he bails.”
Guerra heads back the way he came, away from downtown, speeding down the road with one wheel blown out and the rim lighting up the underside of the truck, the video shows. He hits a curb in front of Montgomery Plaza and keeps going, passing Carroll Street and leaving a trail of smoke in his wake.
“Go slow, bro, cause I can’t see,” the officer says as they drive through the smoke. “There’s a lot of smoke, traffic is still light, speeds are at 60.”
Police said that officers continued to follow Guerra but backed off and slowed down because of the suspect’s erratic driving through the busy entertainment district.
In the video, police lose visual of the truck after it swerves to get around vehicles stopped at the intersection of West 7th Street, University Drive, Camp Bowie Boulevard and Bailey Avenue. Traffic camera video shows the suspect hop another curb, light flying as sparks explode from the blown-out tire.
When they get around the traffic, the officers find the suspect’s truck with a smashed-in front end. It’s smoking. The interior is foggy with the rear right window smashed. The truck came to a stop after hitting a traffic light pole with a sign pointing toward Camp Bowie.
Guerra hit a vehicle in the intersection and two pedestrians who were crossing on the opposite side of the road, Spencer said at the news conference.
Both videos show the passenger in the truck, wearing a light-colored hoodie and black pants, get out of the truck and start walking across the street to a median before turning around and walking back into the street. He lies face down.
As officers start hopping out of their vehicles, someone can be heard crying out. Some police run behind the truck, apparently to attend to the injured pedestrians, while others head toward the man in the hoodie and put him in cuffs.
Charges and pursuit policy
Police said Guerra is facing charges of intoxication assault with a vehicle causing serious bodily injury, evading arrest or detention in a vehicle causing serious bodily injury, and unlawful restraint.
Guerra refused to provide a blood sample, police said, and investigators obtained a search warrant for his blood. His blood alcohol content is still being tested. Police said he does not have any prior alcohol-related convictions.
Spencer said at the news conference that the charge of unlawful restraint comes after the passenger told police he tried to get out of the vehicle at some point but Guerra wouldn’t let him.
Guerra, who is from Grand Prairie, is being held on $95,000 bond, according to Tarrant County Jail records, with $45,000 each for the charges relating to causing bodily injury and $5,000 for the charge of unlawful restraint.
Last year, two people were killed as a result of crashes during Fort Worth police pursuits.
In July, Andra Craig, 57, was killed when his vehicle was hit by a police SUV involved in a pursuit, ejecting him from the vehicle. Craig was a bystander and was not involved in the chase. A 15-year-old girl was also killed in June while she was a passenger in a truck being pursued by police that crashed into a pole during the chase.
The city is currently suing the Texas Attorney General’s Office to keep the department’s policy on police pursuits confidential after the Star-Telegram and other North Texas publications filed open records requests for a copy of that policy. The attorney general’s office in November said that at least portions of the policy needed to be released, leading to the city’s lawsuit that the Fort Worth City Council voted to support last week.
Spencer said at the news conference that officers initiate and will continue a pursuit as long as the danger of letting a suspect get away outweighs potential danger to the public caused by the chase.
A copy of documents released last fall by city officials at the request of a resident who is suing the city in relation to a pursuit was shared with the Star-Telegram on Monday. The documents shared with the Star-Telegram include a copy of the police department’s general orders on pursuits.
While heavily redacted, it includes details about the department’s pursuit policy at the time, including rules that a designated supervisor will be the one to make decisions about whether to continue or call off a chase and that a supervisor should go to the scene where a pursuit ends to make sure all the officers’ actions are appropriate.
“Vehicular pursuit of fleeing suspects can present a danger to the lives of members of the public, officers, and suspects involved in the pursuit,” a portion of the policy states. “Prior to engagement of a pursuit, the officer shall determine whether the pursuit itself will bring a greater risk of harm to persons and property than the loss of the suspect and whether the apprehension of the suspect by other means is possible. Although officers are not relieved from the responsibility of operating their vehicle in a safe manner, the operation of the police vehicle involved in a pursuit shall not be bound by General Order 305.02, Code 3 Emergencies that governs code three (3) responses.”
Other major cities in Texas put their policies online.
This story was originally published January 29, 2024 at 4:05 PM.