Key Takeaways
- A Loomis armored car driver was attacked with bear spray by three suspects during a delivery outside a cash store in Houston.
- The driver fired multiple shots in response, wounding two teenagers, aged 15 and 16, who later sought medical attention.
- Police tracked the getaway vehicle using Flock camera footage, leading to several arrests related to the robbery attempt.
- All suspects in custody are presumed innocent, and charges are pending against them.
- The driver remained unharmed, and no money was stolen during the incident.
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
HOUSTON, TX — A Loomis armored car driver making a delivery outside a check cashing store on Bellaire Boulevard was sprayed with bear spray by three suspects Tuesday afternoon and fired multiple shots, wounding two teenagers, according to the Houston Police Department.
Officers were sent to the 5500 block of Bellaire Boulevard in the Gulfton area around 2:30 p.m. on reports of a shooting in progress and an attempted robbery, as reported by ABC13 Houston, which also carried HPD’s account of how the robbery attempt unfolded and how investigators tracked the getaway car.
Police said the Loomis driver pulled up to an Ace Cash Express location to make a delivery and noticed a truck idling nearby. Three suspects got out and came at him. One of them sprayed him with bear spray.
The driver fired. The suspects ran.
That is the whole encounter, and the sequence is what matters. Deadly force is justified only against an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm. What is described here is a man outnumbered three to one in an open parking lot, hit in the face with a chemical agent designed to stop a charging bear, at the exact moment his vision and his ability to defend himself were being taken away. The cash in the truck is why the suspects were there. It is not why he fired.
Two of the suspects turned up a short time later at a nearby urgent care facility with injuries, police said. They are 15 and 16 years old, and both were taken to Texas Children’s Hospital for surgery.
The case broke open on camera. HPD Lieutenant Larry Crowson said a Flock camera next to the shopping center captured a white Mercedes that police believe was the getaway car, and officers used the plate to track the vehicle to north Houston within hours.
“Officers tracked that vehicle up to the north side, off Tidwell, found it at a car wash, on Tidwell,” Crowson said. “There were several people trying to get blood off the backseat of the car, tampering with evidence there. Those people are detained.”
In all, Crowson said HPD arrested six or seven people, and investigators believe they have everyone involved in the attempted robbery. Charges are pending.
Everyone taken into custody is under arrest, not convicted, and each of them is presumed innocent. The driver has not been publicly identified, and no charging decision involving him has been announced. Prosecutors make that call, not police and not me.
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What stands out to me is how little time he had. Bear spray is not a nuisance. It is an incapacitating chemical weapon, and it was used by one of three people closing on a lone courier in daylight on a busy commercial strip. He had seconds, blind or going blind, to decide what was happening to him.
The driver was not hurt. No money was taken.
