Suspect’s dad went missing after 26-year-old Ryan Smith bonded out for K-9 stabbing case, HPD says
Ryan Mitchell Smith has been charged with stabbing an HPD K-9 during a robbery pursuit over the weekend in the Heights.
By Brhe Berry and Charly Edsitty
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HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Houston police believe a body found at a Memorial-area home Tuesday morning belongs to a man whose son led officers on a chase overnight.
The son, 26-year-old Ryan Smith, is also accused of stabbing a police K-9 during a foot pursuit in an earlier incident over the weekend.
It was that stabbing incident, police say, led to a chain of events that, as of late Tuesday morning, continues with an ongoing search for Smith.
According to Commander Kevin Deese of HPD’s Homicide Division, Smith bonded out of jail for the stabbing incident on Sunday, at which point, family members bring him to his father’s home in the 14700 block of Carolcrest Drive, near Memorial Drive.
Deese said on Monday, family members grew concerned after the father, who was the lone occupant of the home, disappeared without taking his cell phone. Relatives did a search at the home where there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary found except for the father’s truck also being gone.
HPD’s Missing Persons Unit and homicide detectives were called for another search, and while they were in the neighborhood, investigators noticed what appeared to be the father’s truck with the lights off down near Briar Forest and Dairy Ashford
Deese said detectives got closer to the truck and confirmed Smith was behind the wheel. The truck then took off with detectives and, shortly later, patrol vehicles following, which prompted the pursuit just after midnight Tuesday.
The chase reached Memorial Park, where the truck crashed near the Houston Polo Club on the northwest side the park and Smith took off on foot without capture. A search is still going on.
Then, according to Deese, detectives returned to the Carolcrest home to continue the search when they located a body in a “difficult to find” part of the garage. Investigators believe this is the missing father, but an autopsy will determine the identity.
Deese added that the death didn’t appear to be from natural causes.
As of now, police are charging Smith with an evading count, but additional charges are pending.
As for the chase, officers said they found a gun in the truck after Smith ran off.
Radio traffic audio captured the moment officers were trying to arrest Smith overnight.
“Homicide 3494. Hold the air. We have a potential kidnapping suspect on the run. He is in a black Denali GMC. He is going to be on Dairy Ashford, 500 block of Dairy Ashford,” an officer reported. “He has no plates on the car. A potential murder suspect.”
The hours-long search for Smith ended at 3 a.m. Tuesday due to weather conditions.
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