Around 11:35 p.m. on Tuesday night, a Lubbock police officer attempted what should have been a completely mundane traffic stop. But because this is the Hub City—where yielding is a foreign concept and traffic laws are treated as polite suggestions—the driver decided that pulling over was simply out of the question. Instead, they slammed on the gas and initiated a high-speed pursuit westbound down U.S. Highway 62/82, because nothing screams “I have nothing to hide” quite like fleeing toward Terry County at midnight.
As the chase blasted out of the city limits, the driver apparently decided a standard police chase lacked flavor and opened fire, shooting a gun at the pursuing officers multiple times. Because let’s face it, surviving a late-night drive on Lubbock roads isn’t stressful enough without having to dodge casual highway gunfire. Texas Department of Public Safety troopers eventually joined the parade to assist LPD in handling the rolling shooting range.
This West Texas Fast & Furious simulation finally came to a crashing halt about a mile and a half west of Meadow, a town best known for being a place you drive through to get somewhere else. A DPS trooper executed a PIT maneuver, sending the speeding car spinning into the center median where it rolled over. The unnamed driver died at the scene, bringing a tragic end to a bizarre night, though miraculously, no officers were injured in the chaos.
You really have to wonder what that original traffic stop was even for—expired registration tags, a busted taillight, or just the standard Lubbock urge to treat the entire local highway system like a Grand Theft Auto map?
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