3 minNews
Houston Uber driver joins police chase after officers jump into his car
A Houston Uber driver found himself in the middle of a police pursuit when two officers jumped into his vehicle and directed him to chase a suspect fleeing on foot. The suspect was not located, and the investigation is ongoing.
A Houston Uber driver was caught off guard but kept his composure when two police officers jumped into his vehicle and directed him to chase a suspect fleeing on foot, according to dashcam video that has since circulated online.
Anthony Baines said he was driving for Uber at about 12:20 a.m. Aug. 8 in a Houston Heights neighborhood when a shirtless man ran across the street in front of his vehicle with two Houston Police Department officers close behind. The video shows an officer waving Baines down and hopping into the front passenger seat.
«Hey, give me a ride over there please,» the officer says in the footage. «Go, go that way … go, go, go, go, go!» Baines can be heard asking which way he should drive as officers point him in the direction of the suspect.
After driving a short distance, the officer signals for her partner, who is carrying a flashlight, to get in the vehicle as well. The second officer opens the car door and jumps into the backseat. The officers rode with Baines for several minutes while searching the area before one of them appeared to spot the suspect. Both officers then jumped out of the Uber and resumed their pursuit on foot.
«What the f---?!» Baines is heard saying as the officers dart from his car.
«It caught me completely off guard,» Baines told Storyful. «I’ve never had anything like that happen driving. I was surprised but just did what the officer asked in the moment.»
Houston police confirmed the authenticity of the video and the incident to KPRC 2, which reported that officers had been responding to a terroristic threat call involving allegations that the suspect threatened to shoot a woman and her children after becoming upset over a belief that someone had stolen from him. Police said officers tried to detain the man as he left an apartment, but he refused to cooperate and ran away.
An officer asked the driver to take them around the block to the apartment complex, where the officers returned to their own vehicle, according to KPRC. Despite the unusual assistance, police did not locate the suspect. His identity has not been released, and the investigation remains ongoing.
Baines later appeared to confirm in a social media post that he was the Uber driver behind the dashcam footage. «Yep, that was me,» he wrote. «The Uber driver whose dashcam caught two HPD officers jumping in my car to chase a suspect.»
Baines described himself as an Army veteran, husband and father of two who began driving Uber so he and his wife could save for their first home. Fox News Digital has reached out to HPD and Uber for comment.
