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Mike Noble was driving to work Thursday morning on Campbell Road when he noticed emergency lights and sirens behind him and pulled over to the side of the road.
“The next thing I know, I’m getting my car taken,” Noble said.
The Houston engineer was suddenly caught in a string of carjackings that began at Buffalo Creek Elementary School in Spring Branch, where police say an armed murder suspect tried to enter the school, and finally ended in a shootout with police that killed the gunman, officials said.
The man, who was shot and killed by a Spring Branch Independent School District police officer, had attempted to carjack a car driven by a mother dropping off her kids at the school. He ran off school grounds and successfully carjacked a Toyota Rav 4.
“The guy got in front of me with a gun,” said the driver of the Rav 4, Elizabeth Aguillar, a teaching assistant who was heading to work at a different location and had no children at Buffalo Creek.
The man drove away in the Rav 4, sideswiping a school bus. A Spring Branch ISD police officer pursued him and he stopped a few minutes away on Campbell Road behind Noble’s vehicle after getting a flat tire.
Private security footage obtained from nearby business JS Doors N More shows Noble pulling over into the entrance of a parking lot on Campbell. Seconds later, a Rav 4 and a sole Spring Branch police cruiser come to a halt behind him as well.
In the video, a frantic man jumped out of the Rav 4 and appeared to wave a weapon at the passenger-side window and windshield of Noble’s vehicle. Noble fled, ducking as he ran between the cars. The assailant pointed a weapon at the police officer. The officer ducked behind his door as the gunman stole Noble’s car and sped away. The officer spoke into his radio and pursued the carjacker.
Little more than a minute later, the stolen car is seen racing back in the opposite direction and darted into the parking lot across the street, owned by Houston Crane, a machinery firm.
“He must have got blocked by traffic and turned around,” said Noble, who watched police follow the gunman behind the business. Multiple patrol cars can be seen on video entering the lot.
The gunman was finally cornered by police behind the business, city officials said at a press conference Thursday morning.
“We believed he fired one shot at our officer. Our officer returned fire, striking the suspect a number of times. The suspect was deceased on the scene,” said Chief Larry Baimbridge, Jr. of the Spring Branch ISD Police Department.
Houston police later released a statement saying the gunman “raised his firearm at the officer” but did not say whether he fired the weapon. Two minutes after Noble’s car was stolen, he and other onlookers are seen on video visibly reacting to the shots, but there is no sound on the security footage.
Officials said the gunman, who wasn’t identified, might have tried to get inside the elementary school. Texas Education Agency regulations require that all exterior doors and classrooms remain “closed, latched, and locked,” and only be unlocked when they are actively monitored.
“Our front office staff and administrators did exactly as they are trained to do,” said associate superintendent Linda Buchman.
The school was on a heightened security status after educators became aware there was a potentially dangerous person on campus, barring visitors from entry.
“This could have been a much, much more dangerous situation had not our officer been on scene and handled as well as he did,” said Baimbridge of the officer, a 12–year veteran of the department. “I'm very proud of him.”
The pursuit began Thursday morning after Houston Police Department officers responded to a 7:10 a.m. call to the 2500 block of Mona Lee Lane, where a woman had reported hearing a gunshot after a father and her son were arguing in the house.
Officers found the father, who they pronounced dead at the scene, according to HPD Chief Troy Finner on Thursday.
At 7:21 a.m. Spring Branch ISD police received its own call that someone was trying to enter vehicles at the elementary school, said Baimbridge. Police believe the car thief was the alleged shooter, a roughly 30-year-old man who police say had a lengthy criminal record.
“It appears that he attempted to gain entry into the school as well, although we're trying to confirm that. We don't know what his motive was,” said Baimbridge, who said the armed man didn’t appear to have children at the school.
Managing Editor John Tedesco contributed to this report.
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