WATCH: Lufkin, Texas Police Use Pit Maneuver in High-Speed Chase
There were some tense moments Wednesday night on Frank Street in Lufkin near the Gaslight Plaza.
An officer with the Lufkin Police Department witnessed a driver run a stop sign and fail to use a turn signal, before taking off from Lotus Lane onto Hill Street in a white Ford Explorer around 10:30 p.m. The officer noted that Stormer was traveling at such a high rate of speed that all four of his tires left the road as he drove over a train track.
The suspect went on to run red lights along Frank Avenue and the major intersection at Frank Avenue and Loop 287 with the officer following behind him with their overhead lights activated.
Additional units caught up on State Highway 94 West. The suspect then turned around and headed inbound, returning to Frank Avenue inside the loop. The pursuit went from Gaslight Boulevard to Pershing Street to Bynum Street to Ellis Avenue to South Franklin Street and back onto Frank Avenue.
An officer performed a PIT maneuver on the vehicle. The Explorer spun, but the driver recovered and entered the Brookshire Brothers parking lot. That is where the pursuit ended when he was met with additional units and taken into custody without further incident.
Top speeds during the pursuit reached more than 90mph.
The driver was identified as Ross Stormer, 38, of Zavalla. He told officers he was driving recklessly due to being angry over a domestic situation. He did not have warrants but told officers he was on parole. Stormer was also in possession of a misdemeanor amount of marijuana at the time of his arrest.
Stormer is charged with evading arrest with a vehicle and possession of marijuana. This incident makes Stormer's twelfth Angelina County arrest on charges including manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance, assault/family violence, possession of a controlled substance, and traffic offenses. County records show he was sentenced to 12 years in prison in January 2019.
As of Thursday afternoon, he remained in the Angelina County Jail on a collective $20,000 bond.
Below is a video of the pursuit provided by the Lufkin Police Department.