HOUSTON — A man is believed to have taken his own life at the end of a chase in southeast Houston on Tuesday evening, according to law enforcement officials.
The chase started after a robbery at the PNC Bank along the Gulf Freeway and FM 517, according to Dickinson police. They said it happened just before 5 p.m. and the suspect entered the bank with a mask on and demanded money from bank staff members at gunpoint.
Authorities said he approached the teller area and took an undisclosed amount of cash before leaving the scene in a blue vehicle.
League City police officers were involved in the chase. They said they encountered the suspect vehicle on the Gulf Freeway in Webster just after 5 p.m. They said when they tried to stop the vehicle, the driver refused and led them on a chase on the freeway toward Houston.
They said Houston Police Department officers also got involved in the chase when it got off the highway. League City officials said a civilian vehicle was struck by the suspect vehicle near the intersection of Cullen Boulevard and Holmes Road. No injuries were reported in that crash but authorities said the suspect vehicle was disabled in the crash.
The chase ultimately ended in another crash at a dead end on Alconbury Lane in a neighborhood near the intersection of Old Spanish Trail and Cullen.
When the suspect vehicle crashed on Alconbury, authorities said, the suspect got out of the vehicle with a gun. Houston police officials said at least one of their officers appeared to have fired at least one shot at the end of the chase but it's unclear if the suspect was hit.
Authorities said that's when the suspect put his gun to his head and appeared to have taken his own life.
A witness said it ended just before 5:30 p.m. He said he saw the suspect firing shots at officers and presumed the officers fired back because he heard a lot of gunfire.
Air 11 video showed a body on the ground outside the suspect's vehicle and Houston police confirmed the suspect was dead.
A family member showed up at the scene and was visibly distraught. He kept asking police officers what happened to his brother and had to be held back by officers as he tried to enter the crime scene.
Here's the update Houston police provided at the end of the chase: