Two Midland Police Department officers are back on patrol following a ruling by the Midland County Grand Jury.
Officers Ciro Chairez and Anthony Corson returned to full duty Thursday after they were no-billed in connection with an officer-involved shooting incident that began on the Loop 250 north service road and ended near the Green Tree subdivision early in the morning of Feb. 17.
Police first encountered a maroon-colored Ford van, driven by 25-year-old Jamie Lee Perdue, traveling eastbound in the westbound lanes of the Loop 250 north service road near Midland Drive at approximately 2:13 a.m. on Feb. 17. Officers conducted a traffic stop and ordered the driver to step out of the vehicle. Perdue did not comply and accelerated at a high rate of speed toward the officers, narrowly missing them. Officers Carson and Chairez fired rounds at the van as it drove at them before turning north onto Midland Drive.
Perdue failed to stop as officers pursued him in their squad cars, continuing on Midland Drive until the road reached a dead end. He drove the van through a barbed wire fence and attempted to hide from officers. When the officers, who had left their squad cars to pursue the driver on foot, were able to locate the vehicle, the suspect accelerated toward them again. Shots were fired by Chairez as the van accelerated toward him before it continued west through a field. Officers found the vehicle abandoned in a field located north of the Green Tree subdivision and searched several hours for the unidentified suspect.
Perdue was located walking in an alley near Woodhollow Drive and Oriole Drive by an officer before 8 a.m. later that day. Perdue was transported to Midland Memorial Hospital for minor injuries and was released the same day. He was booked into Midland County Jail on two charges of aggravated assault against a public servant, one charge of evading detention or arrest with a motor vehicle, and one charge of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
The two officers were put on administrative leave immediately following the Feb. 17 incident, per MPD protocol, before being placed on administrative duty after being cleared by an internal MPD review board. A Texas Rangers investigation into the incident was also presented to the Grand Jury.
###Media Contact: Public Information Officer Sara Higgins