Stolen Food Truck's Wild Ride: A Fence-Smashing, Median-Jumping, Cop-Hitting Episode On The Southwest Side

By Richard Connelly Tue., Feb. 5 2013 at 8:00 AM

Categories: Crime

Photo by HPD

Carlist Brinkley, shot by a cop after taking food truck

After one of their food trucks was burglarized a second time, the owners of Healthy Lunch Box Catering decided to take action.

They may have got more than they bargained for.

After setting up surveillance of their parking lot Saturday night, they were witnesses to a wild episode that only ended when a cop shot and injured Carlist Ray Brinkley, Jr., 33, the guy who tried to drive off in the truck.

Brinkley's brief time behind the wheel around 11 p.m. that night in the 600 block of West Greens Road included, according to HPD:

-- A failed attempt to ram the stolen food truck through a wooden fence.

-- An attempt to drive the truck into two cops who had responded to a 911 call

-- A successful attempt to ram his way through a metal fence

-- The results of that successful fence-ramming: Brinkley "drove across Greens Road, through the median and struck a low concrete wall on the other side of the street. Brinkley then attempted to reverse the vehicle and struck one of the officers with the vehicle, knocking him down."

-- And he wasn't done yet: "Brinkley struck the median a second time and then struck a light pole while driving backwards. The impact of the van then caused several transformers to explode."

Another cop arrived on the scene, and all three officers fired their weapons. Brinkley suffered a gunshot wound to the leg, for which he was treated and released from Memorial Hermann Northwest.

He's been charged with felony theft and criminal mischief, and the HPD Homicide and Internal Affairs Divisions and the Harris County District Attorney's Office will investigate the officers' firing of their weapons.

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