Friday, December 21, 2007

Unbelievable!

Yesterday afternoon will be forever burned into my head. I was going to the hospital in Fort Worth for one of our member's surgeries. I hit heavy traffic on 1-35 South near downtown Fort Worth for a while, and had just gotten out of it -- going about 50. I looked in my rearview mirror and saw several police cars coming up on me from behind -- lights flashing. I was going to pull over, but one of the squad cars was coming down the shoulder.

As I turned my attention back to in front of me, an officer was standing by the concrete median ahead of me. He threw a tack strip out into the lane to my left. About that time, a white blur went speeding by me on the left. He hit the tack strip -- throwing it into the air. I don't know how it missed my car. He went into a fish tail, and I slammed on my brakes. He ended up facing me about 15 or 20 feet away -- with the back of his car against a guard rail on the shoulder.

Immediately there were officers surrounding his car -- guns drawn. One of them went to open his door, and he floored the accelerator. He might have hit one of the officers, but one of them began shooting. He shot through the windshield -- shattering it. He shot through the side window. I heard three shots total.

The car ended up against the concrete barrier in the middle of I-35. The man was dead.

He was driving a stolen car as it turns out. I don't know if there was more to the story or not.

I can't get the image out of my mind. And I can't get the man's family or the officer who shot him out of my mind either. I have been praying God's blessing on them all.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for calling and sharing the story with me. I can't help but believe that God protected you from what could have been a very serious accident. I would be interested to know if there was more to it than just a stolen car (and, of course, trying to run over officers).

Josh Ross said...

Sorry you had to witness that.

Melissa Taylor said...

I heard about this today from someone at church - I honestly can't remember who. I am thankful that you are safe and that God was watching over you. I can only imagine how scary that was for you, and I feel bad that you had to see that.

Amy C said...

Praise God you are safe! That is a miracle.