A high-speed car chase that spanned three counties and ended in Jefferson County Thursday afternoon ended without incident in a pasture.

According to Jodi Silva, a spokesperson for the Houston Police Department, a man stole a Dodge Challenger at 1600 Post Oak in Houston at 11:40 a.m.

Houston officials later identified the man as Mohamed Abu-Shlieba, 25.

The vehicle was later identified as a Hellcat and with it, Abu-Shlieba allegedly outpaced law enforcement.

According to Jefferson County Sheriff’s Captain Crystal Holmes, the car was pursued by Department of Public Safety officers and they reported seeing a rifle in the car with the suspect.

She said he drove down Interstate 10, until he exited at Highway 73.

“Had he stayed on it, it would have led him into Port Arthur,” Holmes said.
She said DPS lost sight of the vehicle and when they finally saw it, it was pulled off the road.

“He may have run out of gas,” Holmes said. “He exited the vehicle and he ran into a pasture area. … It’s the pasture land just east of the Veola plant. It’s a pretty large area and he went through some trees and out into a pasture. The brush was pretty high and you couldn’t see him if you were in the brush.”

Jefferson County Sherriff’s Officers used their helicopter to locate Abu-Shlieba and officers on the ground located and arrested him.

The helicopter then transported Abu-Shlieba and the officers back to the highway.
Abu-Shlieba was taken into custody at 1:20 p.m. and he is being charged with felony evading in a motor vehicle.

KSAT, a Houston television station, sent its helicopter to document the arrest of Abu-Shlieba and their footage seems to show an officer punch the suspect after he is in custody.

Holmes said she wanted to emphasize that the officer is not with Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.