A Missouri City woman has been charged with evading arrest, child endangerment and fraud after she used her 14-year-old daughter as a shield to protect her from police after a high-speed chase, ABC 13 reported.
Tenescha Henry, 35, was chased by cops for 25 miles at speeds in excess of 100 mph, the report said. The officers had been responding to a theft call.
“At a point, (Henry) did end up exiting and going the wrong way on the service road of I-45 and then ultimately went the wrong way on the local road of Airport Boulevard,” Deputy A. Peters recalled.
The pursuit ended in parking lot after Henry ran out of gas.
“She essentially got out of the vehicle, walked around to the front of the car, opened the passenger side door,” Peters said. “She grabbed an unknown female out of the passenger side and proceeded to grab her, take her out of the car where she, unfortunately, put her in what we would call a chokehold and put her in front of law enforcement.”
“At that point, I 100% believed that we had a hostage situation,” Peters said, adding that police at the time didn’t know the crying girl was Henry’s daughter.
“I distinctly remember her at times saying, ‘Shoot. Shoot me, shoot us.’ Things of that nature,” the deputy said.
A man was also in the back seat of the car, who police said was Henry’s boyfriend.
“It is very high intensity,” Peters said. “It can be a very dangerous situation, and to put your own family member, not to mention your daughter, right in front of that potential danger is just kind of crazy to me.”
Henry was taken into custody, and her daughter was released to a grandparent.
