1:06 p.m. UPDATE-
A high-speed chase that began with two law enforcement officers injured ended hours later with a bang. A SWAT team forced open a storage unit door and tossed in a flash-bang grenade to force out a suspect who was barricaded inside. The suspect, identified as 30-year-old Robert Michael Stuart of Robstown, fled from a Border Patrol Checkpoint in Duval County.
According to Sgt. Harold Mallory with DPS, the chase started at 5:45 a.m. after the suspect failed to stop at a second checkpoint in Duval County. The U.S. Border Patrol called for assistance from the Duval County Sheriff's Department and Freer Police Department. As Freer Police Chief Rolando Flores was pursuing the suspect, a Border Patrol agent pulled out of Highway 44, causing Chief Flores to t-bone him.
Flores was taken to Christus Spohn Shoreline with minor injuries. Border Patrol agent Manuel Perez was flown to Christus Spohn Shoreline with a broken shoulder.
Meanwhile, DPS troopers following the suspect saw him enter a storage unit in Calallen. When they pulled up, DPS troopers said the suspect was swapping vehicles and immediately locked himself in the storage unit.
After several hours, DPS brought in their SWAT team. They used a battering ram to open the unit, threw a flash-bang before capturing 30-year-old Robert Michael Stuart, of Robstown.
He's being transported back to Duval County where he'll be charged with evading arrest with a motor vehicle causing bodily injury.
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Someone who led police on a high-speed chase is holed up inside a storage unit in Calallen.
Officers with the Duval County Sheriff's Department, Texas Department of Public Safety, the Corpus Christi Police Department, Nueces County Constable Precinct 5, and the Annaville Fire Department are at the scene where the subject is barricaded.
According to Sgt. Harold Mallory with the Texas Department of Public Safety, the chase began just before 6 a.m. Thursday, a car approached the Border Patrol checkpoint in Duval County. When agents asked the driver to move forward to the next checkpoint for further inspection, the driver took off, leading agents on a chase.
Mallory said Freer Police Chief Rolando Flores joined in the chase and collided with a Border Patrol agent. Flores said the agent was traveling south on Highway 44 in Encinal towards U.S. 59 when he collided with him. The chase led several officers to a storage unit on the 4200 block of FM 624, west of County Road 75 in Calallen.
Chief Flores was transported to Christus Spohn in Alice. As of 10:25 a.m., Flores was being treated for a dislocated finger. There's no word on how the Border Patrol agent he collided with is doing.
We're told another Border Patrol agent involved in the chase was injured and broke their collarbone.
This is a developing story. We'll bring you the latest information as soon as it becomes available.
