Dramatic Video Shows End of High Speed Chase

Good Morning friends,

Longtime readers know how much we loathe chasing spot news. But some things are just a no-brainer, and so it is with this one.

Workers inside the Border Patrol Checkpoint between Uvalde and Brackettville, TX documented the twisted metal end as a high speed chase early Thursday Morning wound up almost in their laps—forcing the Checkpoint to shut down until officials could clean it up.

A Screenshot from Video Found on Facebook, apparently shot from Within the Checkpoint on Highway 90 near the Kinney/Uvalde County Line

Some local residents on seeing the footage and the crash site thought perhaps there were some fatalities.

We’re told the driver clipped an array of border patrol cameras and sensors on his way into the checkpoint— before crashing right into the heavy concrete base of a metal post.

Amazingly, no one was seriously injured, according to Uvalde Emergency Medical Services.

At this point, the most relevant matters related to the chase appear to be the shutdown at the checkpoint, the involvement of human trafficking, and the fact that the chase sped through Brackettville, boomeranging through the town at least once, before ending where it did— risking serious injury or accident all along the way.

Here’s a Facebook link to the video we cropped the above screenshot from. It’s been posted by a lady named Dolly Schultz. We don’t know her, but she appears to be active in the Republican party in Uvalde County, and says someone sent her the video.

There has been some criticism— some folks wondering why someone would stand there shooting video, instead of helping with the crisis. But— for what it’s worth, video records can be very helpful in assessing the actions taken during an incident, and folks should probably cut the photographer a break in this case, with what appears to be a large number of Border Patrol Agents and others already on hand.

Folks wanting official comment on the incident will have to send their requests to DPS— but from what we gather, the chase started on Highway 90, heading West, originally on the far side of Brackettville, Tx. The pursuit made it all the way to the Sycamore bridge, which basically guards the approach to Val Verde County.

No one has said it, but one strongly suspects there were troopers already there, with stop-spikes deployed waiting for the driver. We say this, because that’s one of the spots authorities frequently set up at. The driver was able to whip a u-turn and led the chase all the way back through Brackettville and on toward Uvalde, before finally coming to an end as documented by the video.

We spoke with one Deputy who was following the pursuit some distance behind it, who hinted at furious efforts to radio ahead to try and alert residents and motorists that the chase was coming back through town.

Thanks to those efforts, and surely a lot of luck, no one was injured as they swept back through Brackettville. We have been told that one local retired school teacher was nearly caught up in the mess, but escaped accident and involvement.

It is difficult. There is an argument some favor, that claims the pursuits create the danger, and DPS and Deputies should lay back and err more on the side of safety. But, we also believe that vigorous enforcement and investigation are the only way to keep things from getting worse, in the absence of clear leadership at the Federal level.

There’s more to be said about the necessity of vigorous enforcement. There’s a lot to explore about what happens in the absence of such efforts, but not tonight.

Too late, too much to do. We’ll have to save it for a future newsletter.

January 1st is fast approaching.

It’s hard to imagine 2023 being worse than 2022, but we make no predictions, except to note that it’s easier to change our minds than it is to change the world.

“The mind is its own place and, in itself can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven.”

John Milton wrote that. Words he imagined out of the mouth of Lucifer, as the former Bringer of Dawn and Son of the Morning tried to cope with his new station in life after being cast out of Heaven.

A bit ominous, no? Let’s hope we don’t actually have to configure our thoughts to such a degree. But there’s something to it.

Keep your heads up, eyes open and them toes tapping. It can’t rain everyday, and good days are just as plentiful as the bad.

As always, this newsletter is a project that rests independently of our day job at the Kinney County Sheriff’s Office. No one should mistake it for any kind of official communication from Kinney County Government, and any errors, mistakes, or other misdeeds contained within are entirely our own.

Have a great morning— we’ll be back again soon.