DALLAS, Texas – A four-county high speed police pursuit quickly made its way through Kaufman County on Tuesday night, May 27, 2014, before coming to an end with a major head-on collision in Dallas.
DALLAS, Texas – A four-county high speed police pursuit quickly made its way through Kaufman County on Tuesday night, May 27, 2014, before coming to an end with a major head-on collision in Dallas.
The Department of Public Safety and several other law enforcement agencies pursued the suspect vehicle, an extended cab Chevrolet truck, at speeds in excess of 100 miles an hour while driving on the wrong side of the road on several different area highways. The pursuit originated in Henderson County.
The Kaufman County Sheriff's Office briefly joined the chase as it passed from Van Zandt County, through Kaufman County, and into Dallas County at approximately 10:30 p.m. Texas Department of Public Safety's DPS101 helicopter joined the pursuit as it traveled through Kaufman County until its conclusion.
When the chase entered Dallas County, the suspect, now identified as 27-year-old Derek Anthony Palmer, began driving erratically in an attempt to evade the now large number of police units in pursuit. The suspect drove his vehicle on the wrong side of the road several times at a high rate of speed on U.S. Highway 175 and IH 20, their frontage roads, and on side streets, narrowly avoiding collisions several times. At one point, the vehicle traveled westbound in the eastbound lanes of 175, then westbound on IH 20, and back eastbound in the westbound lanes of IH 20, and then eastbound in the westbound lanes of 175, with speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour.
The chase finally ended near the intersection of South Belt Line Road and Vida Lane where the suspect violently collided with a small passenger vehicle while again traveling in the wrong direction. That vehicle's driver, Colton Suire, was uninjured despite his vehicle being thrown across the median and rolling over several times.
“I was coming from my girlfriend’s house, heading home,” said Suire. “He just came out of nowhere and hit me, I never [saw] him. I rolled a few times, the next thing you know I'm upside down in the car. When I crawled out, all the cops were around him.”
Suire lives just a few blocks from the scene of the accident. His mother said she is thankful he was uninjured. “You can replace a car, but you can't replace a life,” she said.
During the chase, Palmer was also collided with a Texas Department of Public Safety vehicle. The officer was uninjured but the vehicle sustained damage to its left front side.
At one point in the chase, Palmer slowed the truck on a side street in Seagoville where two occupants of the vehicle bailed from the vehicle and fled on foot. Those two occupants have yet to be apprehended.
Palmer also appeared uninjured in the accident and attempted to flee on foot but only ran about 20 feet from the accident before falling on the ground and surrendering to police. It is still unknown how or why the pursuit began in Henderson County. The accident was cleared at approximately 12:35 a.m.
Palmer is currently being held at the Henderson County Jail with a probation violation and evading arrest charge. Criminal records indicate this pursuit isn't Palmer's first attempt to evade police. Palmer received deferred adjudication and four years probation for an evading arrest charge in August 2012 in Dallas County.
The below video was taken from inForney.com's Mobile 1 during the chase.
