Stockyards pursuit leading to fatal accident — ‘He got spooked,’ eyewitness says

A pair of eyewitnesses to a fatal accident in the heart of the Stockyards on Thursday said police were not in “hot pursuit” of a suspect in a stolen vehicle who crashed into several vehicles, killing a woman who was in a Jeep.

“They were probably at least a block behind” the driver who police said smashed a stolen Ford pickup truck into seven vehicles, said Ryan Sanders, 25, a valet at the Courtyard Marriott hotel at 2537 N. Main St.

The crash injured seven and killed Gaudencia Meza, 58, a Fort Worth resident, according to police and the Tarrant County medical examiner.

“They definitely kept their distance,” said Sanders, who was working in the hotel parking lot and said he saw the suspect vehicle shoot past at “90 to 100 miles per hour” at around 11 a.m.

Sanders said he doesn’t think anything police did made the situation any more dangerous.

“It was just he was going so damn fast,” he said.

When police first approached the suspect vehicle, it was obvious they were following it, said Tiffany Lewis, a postal carrier whose delivery route takes her along North Main Street and who saw the episode unfold.

“He kept about a half a car length behind,” she said.

The driver, arrested and identified by police Thursday as Luis Young III, 26, of Fort Worth, pulled over at first, Lewis said.

“He got out and he was hesitant, he seemed disoriented, and then he got spooked,” said Lewis, who said she’s a former Tarrant County sheriff’s deputy.

When Young sped away, Lewis said, “It looked like (police) were staging, it wasn’t a hot pursuit. They were a couple of seconds off.”

Sanders agreed, saying police were “five or six seconds” behind Young.

Police said that a second patrol vehicle nearby picked up the pursuit of the suspect’s vehicle and that part of the ongoing police investigation is to determine whether the officer in pursuit followed police pursuit protocol.

A copy of the protocol sent to the Star-Telegram states that police are to end the pursuit of a suspect if they assess that “the risks associated with continued pursuit are greater than the public safety benefit of making an immediate apprehension.”

“As soon as he wrecked, I almost ran down there to try to help render aid,” said Sanders, who had a clear line of sight to the wreckage at the intersection of North Main Street and Exchange Avenue.

But first responders arrived within seconds, including the Fire Department, he said.

“Then I saw the PD surrounding the truck with their guns drawn, and I was like, ‘Oh, he’s a suspect.’ ”

“It’s definitely not something you see down here very often,” Lewis said.

Young was arrested and faces charges of evading arrest and detention causing death, and property theft between $2,500 and $30,000, police said. Two female passengers with him in the truck were not arrested, according to jail records.

This story was originally published September 7, 2018 at 1:49 PM with the headline "Stockyards pursuit leading to fatal accident — ‘He got spooked,’ eyewitness says."