June 1, 2022
Man fleeing from police shoots at officers, drowns after stabbing himself
A 22-year-old man who led police on a vehicle chase drowned late Friday night after crashing his vehicle and opening fire on officers.
The chase started in Santa Fe when officers tried to stop a vehicle that was clocked at going 96MPH in a 55MPH zone in the 16000 block of state Highway 6.
When the suspect refused to pull over a police pursuit headed south on state Highway 6.
Eventually the man fleeing police crashed his vehicle into the marsh area along the water in the 3500 block of state Highway 6 in Bayou Vista near Louie’s Bait Camp.
As the man got out of his vehicle he reportedly shot at two Hitchcock Police Department officers.
One of the patrol vehicles was struck three times, but neither officer was wounded.
A Hitchcock police officer returned fire, but did not strike the suspect, Hitchcock Police Chief Wilmon Smith said.
It was then that the man reportedly stabbed himself in the chest and repeatedly used his hands to pound the knife deeper into his chest. He eventually drowned, Santa Fe Police Lt. Greg Boody said.
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Boody confirmed Smith’s account that the suspect was not struck by officers’ gunfire.
The Santa Fe Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division took over what is classified as an officer involved death of a suspect, since the man died during an incident involving Hitchcock police officers.
Boody said he contacted the Galveston County District Attorney’s Office as is procedure for such an incident.
The DA’s office however, given the circumstances of the incident, declined to come to the scene.
The man who died was identified as Christopher Ortega.
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