SWAT team drags out ‘impaired’ driver from 18-wheeler after hours-long standoff: video

A SWAT staff was compelled to demolish the passenger facet of an 18-wheeler and drag out the “impaired” driver after a three-hour-long standoff on a Texas freeway.

The motive force continued to rev the truck’s engine and maintained a “glazed” look on his face lengthy after officers disabled the tires. They ultimately deployed smoke, fuel and different non-lethal techniques to entice the driving force to exit the car.

Footage exhibits investigators siccing their K9s on the unidentified man by means of the destroyed door earlier than yanking him out of the rig and inserting him in handcuffs shortly earlier than 4 p.m. — solely to search out the cargo automobile he was defending was fully empty.

“We nonetheless don’t know why he was appearing within the erratic method that he was,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez advised reporters.

“There does look like some heavy impairment … Simply from the bare eye, that’s what it seems to be.”

The weird standoff kicked off at 1 p.m. when police discovered the 18-wheeler parked in the midst of the outbound lanes of East Freeway in Houston.

The motive force took off as quickly as he seen the patrol automobile activate its overhead lights, and virtually immediately engaged in “evasive motion,” together with swerving out and in of a number of lanes, Gonzalez stated.

Deputies deployed tire spikes, taking out a number of tires, however the driver continued crawling down the freeway for a number of extra minutes till the driving force’s cabin collapsed onto the pavement.

Officers tried talking with the person in Spanish and English, however he ignored each try at communication, stated police.

“He gave the impression to be behind the wheel in like in a glaze, simply revving the truck like as if he was driving,” Gonzalez stated. “And we have been involved that he would maybe ultimately go ahead and proceed to wreak extra havoc or put extra folks in danger.”

After tear fuel additionally proved futile, a SWAT staff used a Rook, a bulldozer-like car modified for tactical makes use of, to tear open the cabin doorways and ship in a K9 — however the man nonetheless didn’t budge.

Ultimately, officers went inside, bodily pulled the person out and positioned him beneath arrest.

No weapons have been discovered within the automobile and the cargo was empty. His identification and prices have been nonetheless pending Wednesday evening, in response to Gonzalez.

Different particulars — together with whether or not the truck was stolen and what the person’s plan was — will not be but clear.

The incident induced site visitors to be blocked in each instructions of the freeway, inflicting a back-up that lasted for miles and lasted a number of hours.