Background: Surveillance video captured the teenage suspect fleeing from police after exiting his father”s pickup truck (KHOU). Inset: News footage of the scene where Willie Washington was found dead in his home on Sept. 9 (KHOU).
A Texas teenager is the prime suspect in the brutal slaying of his own father, who was found dead in his home earlier this week.
The Pearland Police Department said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that officers responded to the home of 43-year-old Willie Washington at around 6:30 a.m. “in reference to a death investigation.” When officers arrived, they found Washington with “multiple stab wounds” and declared him dead at the scene.
Missing from the home was Washington’s pickup truck, which police set out to find. When officers finally tracked it down after a chase through Houston, they identified the driver as Washington’s 16-year-old son.
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Pearland Police said officers were able to locate Washington’s truck using their license plate reader system. Upon locating the truck, police attempted to make a traffic stop. Instead of stopping, the driver allegedly fled and set officers in pursuit of the vehicle and the driver.
In surveillance video obtained by local CBS affiliate KHOU, the truck is visible in the top, right-hand corner of the frame. The video shows the truck spinning out onto a grassy area before ultimately stopping. At that point, the teenage suspect ran out of the car. He was quickly apprehended by officers and taken into custody. Cops have not publicly named the suspect.
While police did not provide specific details, officers stated in their Facebook post that they had evidence giving them probable cause to charge the teenager with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon of a family member. He is being held at Brazoria County Juvenile Detention Center.
KHOU reported that another relative of Washington was the one who found him dead in his home on Tuesday. Pearland Police Public Information Officer Chad Rogers told reporters that the matter was being treated as a death investigation and is ongoing.
