HOUSTON — Body camera footage showing the moments an officer was shot and a suspect was killed on the Southwest Freeway in November was released by the Houston Police Department Friday.
The nearly 30 minutes of footage show how multiple innocent bystanders were caught in the middle of a dramatic shootout on the freeway between HPD officers and a suspect accused of multiple burglaries. The footage even shows HPD officer J. Gibson being dragged to safety by another officer and a civilian after being shot in the leg.
That civilian was John Lally.
"You're okay. You're okay bro. Breathe," Lally could be heard saying on video.
Lally captured the shooting on his cellphone the day it happened, but he said seeing the video released by HPD provided a different perspective of the day he jumped into action.
"To see it first hand is like being in a video game or being in a movie, something that you see in a movie," Lally said after watching the HPD body camera video.
Lally remembers talking to a woman whose vehicle was being used as a shield in the middle of the shootout.
"She was like, hysterical," he said. "She was like, panicking. Yeah, breathing hard. She was like, really going through it."
Though dozens of drivers and passengers were on the freeway during the shootout, no innocent bystanders were hurt.
HPD said as of Friday, Officer Gibson is at home recovering.
What happened
The incident started around 10 a.m. Saturday when an officer spotted a vehicle that was taken in a carjacking Friday.
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said the officer followed the stolen vehicle without using sirens or emergency equipment, but when the suspect noticed the officer, he sped off and a chase began.
Finner said the suspect drove northbound on the Southwest Freeway, and as he approached the 610 Loop, he crashed into multiple vehicles. The suspect attempted to carjack two people after he crashed, and as he shot at officers, at least three returned fire, hitting the suspect multiple times, Finner said.
The suspect was pronounced dead at a hospital.