Pasadena police chase ends with suspect shot, truck in living room

10:02 AM CDT on Tuesday, June 9, 2009

By Rosa Flores / 11 News

PASADENA, Texas – Rufel Muniz and his wife awoke Tuesday to what they describe as a bomb going off.

When Muniz, 75, walked out of his bedroom, he says he found the bed of a Dodge truck in the middle of his home.

Without even knowing it, Muniz was staring at the end of a police chase.

It all started when Pasadena patrol officers got a call about a suspect in a pickup truck in the 900 block of Houston Avenue.

Around 11:30 p.m., officers spotted the truck. They tried to pull it over, but they said the suspect took off.

After about a mile and a half, police said the driver hit a construction sign and a utility post, bouncing onto the lawn of the Muniz’ home in the 100 block of Denham.

An officer tried to approach the suspect, but police said the suspect gunned the engine in a bid to back over the officer.

He backed into the house instead.

The officer fired three shots at the suspect, hitting him three times, police said.

The suspect was airlifted to Memorial Hermann, and the officer was uninjured.

As for the Muniz family, they said it was the second time their home has been destroyed in the past year.

They had just finished repairing the damage from Hurricane Ike.