Spring, TX — A mentally ill woman armed with a revolver brought traffic to a standstill on a busy Texas highway Thursday after intentionally crashing her car into an 18-wheeler and staging an hours-long standoff with police, authorities said.
The unusual incident began around 1:30 p.m. on Interstate 45 in Spring, when the 64-year-old woman allegedly spun her car around and deliberately slammed into a truck, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.
After the crash, the woman reportedly pulled a lawn chair from her vehicle, sat in the middle of the southbound lanes of the freeway, and held a .38 caliber revolver to herself, authorities said.
“She persistently kept [the gun] to her face, her throat, her head, making it very difficult for us to approach her and take the gun away,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez told reporters during a press conference.
Both sides of the highway were shut down for nearly five hours as law enforcement officers attempted to defuse the dangerous situation. Photos from the scene showed the woman sitting calmly in the roadway dressed entirely in blue.
Authorities say the woman has a history of mental illness, including reported psychosis.
Crisis negotiators were brought in, and eventually, the woman’s daughter arrived at the scene to assist. Allowing the woman to speak with her daughter proved critical in calming her down, Gonzalez said.
“That was something that kept her here with us from doing something foolish. Once she realized her daughter was here, she was safe, and she was going to be allowed to see her again, it got better at that point,” Gonzalez added.
The woman eventually surrendered peacefully, embracing the negotiator before being taken into custody and transported to a hospital for evaluation.
The truck driver involved in the initial crash was unharmed, police confirmed.
Gonzalez called the peaceful resolution a “win for everybody.”
