McLennan County Sheriff: no plan to review high-speed chase policies following fiery crash

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara said he has no plans to review his office’s high-speed chase policies after a Saturday night incident in which a Bellmead man was killed in a fiery crash on Interstate 35 while fleeing a sheriff’s deputy.

Kelvin Hubert, 32, was killed while trying to elude Deputy James Robison, McNamara said. Hubert tried to turn left onto the Moonlight Drive overpass, crashed into the retaining wall and his vehicle flipped over the wall and dropped 20 feet to the pavement.

McNamara said he thinks Hubert died on impact before his vehicle burst into flames.

The incident started after Robison spotted Hubert driving the wrong way on South 17th Street about 10 p.m. Saturday, McNamara said. The deputy turned on his lights and started pursuing Hubert, who turned onto the interstate and fled at speeds in excess of 90 mph, the sheriff said.

Robison lost sight of the fleeing Hubert, McNamara said, and he didn’t catch up to him until after Hubert’s vehicle had already flipped from the overpass.

McNamara said Robison rushed up to try to assist the motorist, who was unconscious and possibly dead inside the overturned car as flames started to erupt. In an attempt to get Hubert out of the vehicle, Robison kicked the airbag on the driver’s side, which McNamara said exploded. The unexpected impact from the explosion forced the deputy to retreat as flames engulfed the car.

Department of Public Safety troopers, firefighters, Hewitt officers and other sheriff’s deputies responded to the fatal crash, McNamara said.

McNamara said he doesn’t know why Hubert fled from the deputy, adding he had no outstanding warrants that he is aware of.

McNamara said he does not plan to review the office’s high-speed chase policies in light of the chase that started with a minor traffic infraction in the city limits of Waco and ended in Hubert’s death and after his deputies have been involved in several crashes during high-speed chases in recent years.

“Absolutely not,” McNamara said. “We have to do them. Now, if it goes through the middle of town, we call them off. But if these bad guys get it in their head that we won’t chase them, they will just put the pedal to the metal, knowing they can get away because they think we aren’t going to chase them.”

Robison was involved in a May 7 incident on Interstate 35 when he struck and killed a pedestrian, 24-year-old Maddison Lassetter, who was walking in the 3700 block of Jack Kultgen Expressway.

McNamara said Hubert was the brother of Keenan Hubert, 20, who was shot and killed along with Tyus Sneed, 17, in a March 2011 incident at the former Lakewood Villas apartment complex, 1601 Spring St.

Albert Leslie Love, 38, spent three years on death row before his conviction in those murders was overturned. Love then spent four years in the McLennan County Jail awaiting a retrial before the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office dismissed the capital murder charge against him and he was released.