Fort Worth police release dashcam footage from chase that killed bystander
Nearly three years after a Fort Worth police pursuit resulted in one death, two injuries, two lawsuits and disciplinary action against an officer, the department has released video footage and 48 pages of reports related to the incident.
The reports, which are lightly redacted, show the Fort Worth Police Department’s initial efforts to avoid a high-speed chase and the circumstances that led to the death of 57-year-old Andra Craig on July 6, 2023.
Earlier that day, Flock cameras alerted to a purple Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat using a license plate number that belonged to another car. The vehicle also matched the description of a Challenger someone had reported stolen.
Real Time Crime Unit officers, using cameras in the area, located the muscle car in the Valero parking lot on Oak Grove Road. Several police units were sent to the scene, but the Challenger with two occupants inside left the gas station before they arrived. An undercover officer in an unmarked car spotted the vehicle and began following the suspects.
“Being that these vehicles often evade arrest driving at high rates of speed endangering the public officers decided to have (the undercover officer) follow the vehicle until it came to a stop and then detain the occupants,” the report states.
The Challenger stopped at a house in the 900 block of E. Shaw Street. The other officers hadn’t arrived yet for backup, according to the report. The undercover officer had to pass the suspect vehicle and get turned around, and by that time he couldn’t tell if anyone was still inside the Challenger.
Another officer announced that he’d recovered three stolen vehicles at the E. Shaw Street address the previous year. The suspect had fled the area on foot and escaped arrest, according to the report.
“With this information we wanted to confirm that the occupants were in the car and assure that we had enough personnel to cover the area before moving in to try and detain the occupants,” the report states.
The department’s helicopter, Air One, was also dispatched to assist, according to the report. The helicopter was approaching the area, when the Challenger pulled away from the house and headed north.
In another attempt to avoid a high-speed pursuit, the report states, an officer stationed near the Evans Avenue and East Berry Street intersection deployed tire spike strips on the Challenger as it passed. Another officer, Linuel Joel, turned on the lights and sirens of his police Tahoe and attempted to get the vehicle to pull over.
Video shows how chase led to deadly crash
Instead of stopping, the purple car accelerated and sped through a red light, according to video from Joel’s dashboard camera. Joel follows the Challenger, also passing the Evans and East Berry intersection on red, video footage released by police shows.
The Challenger continues north on Evans Avenue, keeping well ahead of Joel and the other officers. The video footage shows vehicles moving to the right to get out of the way of the high-speed pursuit. One officer estimated the Challenger was traveling at more than 100 miles per hour, according to the report.
“At times it traveled on the wrong side of the road, and was clearly dangerous to human life and with no regard to public safety,” the report states.
At one point, the Challenger’s passenger threw an AR-style pistol out the window. One of the officers stopped to retrieve it from the roadway.
Officer Joel, who is in the lead, speeds through another red light at East Allen Avenue, according to the dashcam footage.
“He’s got a good spike. He’s losing it,” the officer can be heard saying on the radio. By this time, the suspects had already crossed East Rosedale Street.
Joel continues to call out the Challenger’s direction as he nears Rosedale from the south. Dashcam footage shows the light is red, but westbound traffic appears to be stopped. At the same moment Joel’s SUV enters the intersection on red, an eastbound Cadillac Escalade approaches on green and the two vehicles collide.
The Cadillac’s driver, Andra Farnell Craig, had just left a birthday party, according to his family. The 57-year-old man was thrown from his vehicle when it was hit by the patrol car and he died at the scene. The collision pushed Joel’s patrol vehicle into a nearby Chevrolet pickup. The pickup’s occupants, Luis and Manuel Arellano, received minor injuries.
Joel was trapped in his SUV, according to the report. He managed to get out by breaking a window and helped another officer perform CPR on Craig.
Meanwhile, the Challenger’s tires started coming apart. The driver and passenger — 18-year-old Brian Hunter and 29-year-old Kristopher Robinzine — abandoned the vehicle near Evans Avenue and East Pulaski Street. Both men tried to evade police on foot but were ultimately arrested. Officers also located the Challenger and confirmed it was stolen, according to the police report.
Charges, suspension, lawsuits in aftermath
Hunter initially faced a murder charge in connection with Craig’s death. He later agreed to testify in another case and was able to plead guilty to the lesser offense of evading detention with a vehicle causing death. The unauthorized use of a vehicle charge was waived under the plea deal, according to Tarrant County court records.
Robinzine was charged with evading arrest, unlawful possession of a firearm and tempering with physical evidence. The Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office dismissed the charges against him in April 2024 on the grounds of prosecutorial discretion, court records state.
No criminal charges were brought against Joel for his part in the fatal crash, but he was suspended from active duty for 15 days. An internal affairs investigation found that he’d violated the department’s pursuit policy, which states that an officer should approach all intersections with caution and not assume that motorists see or hear the emergency vehicle.
Joel’s superiors noted in their report that "he made a human error” and “no malicious intent” was involved.
Open records requests from the Star-Telegram and other media outlets after the fatal crash led to the Fort Worth Police Department publicly releasing portions of its pursuit policy.
In June 2025, Fort Worth officials paid $250,000 to Craig’s father, Uriel Lemon Brown, who’d brought a $1 million lawsuit against the city for negligence and wrongful death. The city previously settled with Luis and Manuel Arellano, the two men injured in the accident, for $140,000.
