A Texas man live-streamed his final moments on Facebook this week, dying in a shootout with deputies after allegedly refusing to comply with a traffic stop.
Patrick Hurst, 47, was killed in Harris County after allegedly trading fire with one sergeant and three deputies near the intersection of FM-1960 and Ella Boulevard in Houston on Sunday.
A 48-year-old female bystander sustained non-life-threatening injuries during the shootout and was taken to a hospital for treatment. A ballistics team is looking to determine who shot the female victim and a nearby private school bus during the gunfire exchange. The two adults on the bus sustained no injuries, and no students were inside the bus at the time of the shooting, per a post on X from Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
Gonzalez explained in an advisory that Hurst “had a possible open felony warrant out of Brazoria” and led law enforcement in a brief chase after the suspect refused to exit his vehicle during a traffic stop.
“[Hurst] identified himself as a sovereign citizen. Our team engaged in conversation with him for over 1 hour, but the male refused to comply and exit his vehicle. … Spike strips were placed at the site of the initial stop, but the male drove away nonetheless. A vehicle pursuit ensued for about 2 mins, before our units conducted a successful pit maneuver,” Gonzalez posted on X.
The FBI has identified the “sovereign citizen” movement as a domestic terror threat due to adherents believing they are not beholden to any government authority.
Jail records from Brazoria County suggest that Hurst had a criminal history dating to 2021 for resisting arrest, evading arrest, and failure to appear in court.
“A reminder that sovereign defiance is capable of turning violent. Some individuals believe they are not subject to government or law enforcement authority. Our deputies were doing their job, keeping our community safe. The male was lawfully stopped. Our deputies are not required to allow anyone to violate the laws,” Gonzalez posted.
Hurst’s sister, Angela Washington, has refuted any connection between her brother and the sovereign citizen movement, suggesting that he instead had had some kind of “mental breakdown,” per ABC 30.
“He was always doing God’s work. He was always doing our father’s business,” Washington said. “That’s the honest to God’s truth. So this was a big shock.”
Washington also mentioned being unaware that Hurst owned a weapon until the shooting, adding that she had been on the phone with him during his final moments, telling him: “Don’t do it.”
Appearing on a recent DX podcast, Rania Mankarious, CEO of Crimestoppers Houston, discussed how crime hit an all-time high in the city of around 2.3 million people several years ago.
“We sounded the alarm,” Mankarious recalled. “We said, ‘Stop, something is going on, and it requires all of our attention.’”
While conceding that much progress has been made since, Mankarious explained that Houston — and other Texas cities, including Dallas — were woefully short on police officers.
“Texas cities are growing rapidly, whereas city budgets and county budgets are not growing to the same degree, so it’s hard to increase city services at the rate that matches the growth in the population,” Mankarious said.
The Dallas Police Department currently fields only around 3,000 officers despite a City analysis based on population size recommending closer to 4,000 to ensure public safety. Still, this fiscal year, the Dallas City Council approved DPD a budget of just $654 million, far less than the spending levels on police seen in other high-crime cities, including New York and Chicago.
