HOUSTON – A woman who was waiting at a bus stop in Houston is dead after being hit by a vehicle driven by a wanted man fleeing Montgomery County deputies.
Lt. Scott Spencer with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said it started around 2:15 p.m., when deputies as well as members of the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force tried to pull over Joseph Jebbia, 43, for an aggravated assault warrant out of Montgomery County.
Spencer said Jebbia refused to stop and began to evade deputies. He said Jebbia ran a red light and hit another vehicle, causing a chain reaction which led to Jebbia’s car hitting a woman waiting at a bus stop at the North Freeway frontage road and West Road.
The woman, who Spencer said appears to be in her fifties, died at the scene from her injuries.
Jebbia kept going after hitting the woman, at times going the wrong way on I-45, according to Spencer. He eventually crashed at Smiley Woods Lane and Highway 249 where he was taken into custody.
Spencer said a loaded assault rifle, body armor, and a large amount of drugs believed to be fentanyl, were found in Jebbia’s vehicle, a red Chevrolet Tahoe. Spencer said the amount of drugs in Jebbia’s vehicle was at least close to a kilo.
Spencer said Jebbia is a career criminal who has been in trouble with the law multiple times before.
“He’s wanted for aggravated assault out of Montgomery County where he almost took a lady’s life, so he continues that today and he’s just done it for his entire life and its about time he’s taken off the streets forever and justice needs to be served,” Spencer said.
As for deputies chasing Jebbia, Spencer said they weren’t right on top of him and Jebbia was a little ways ahead of them when the crash happened.
“They saw the onset of the crash, they couldn’t even see that a pedestrian had gotten hit because they were that far back trying to catch up to him,” Spencer said.
Spencer offered condolences to the family and friends of the woman killed.
Jebbia is being taken to the Harris County Jail.