Finner: 'I ask our city to pray for him and members of his family as we seek justice in this incident'

Houston Chief of Police Troy Finner is appealing for prayers for an officer who lost his mother in a crash Sept. 7 that was allegedly caused by a pair of carjacking suspects evading arrest. The officer in question holds the rank of sergeant, Finner said, Houston CW station KIAH Channel 39 reported.

"After I left the scene of my news briefing, I was saddened to learn the woman who lost her life in this morning’s crash caused by a suspect driving a stolen vehicle is the mother of a Houston police sergeant,” Finner said in a statement the Houston Police Department shared on X, formerly Twitter. “A short time ago, I met with the sergeant who, as you might expect, is in a state of shock. I ask our city to pray for him and members of his family as we seek justice in this incident.”

Finner urged the officer’s request for privacy for him and his family be respected, in his X post. 

Per KIAH, the vehicle involved in the crash was purportedly stolen from a woman Sept. 6. Authorities spotted the vehicle the next morning and the suspects fled, only to collide with the victim’s car at the intersection of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Van Fleet Street in southeast Houston.

KIAH reported Finner described the suspects to be at least in their teens. He suggested they be brought up on murder charges.

Houston ABC station KTRK Channel 13 reported there were witnesses to the crash, with one woman lamenting it as a “tragedy.” The station reported a woman named Cathleen Hill identified herself as the carjacking victim.

"There were two young guys dressed in camo with ski masks,” Hill told KTRK. “They robbed me at gunpoint. They had two assault rifles to my head, saying they were going to take my car and get out of the way.”