Man leads officer on wild chase

Image 1 of 13

It was a high-speed chase where the driver literally cornered himself on top of a roof after crashing his truck.

The trouble started 32-year-old Daniel Gilstrap decided to take off when pulled over for going 20 over the speed limit.

Carrollton Police add, pretty soon he was going way over that, 80 in a 30, blowing through five red lights, then crashing into a clump of trees at the end of a parking lot.

“I don’t think he had a concern about anyone on the roadway or really the woman in his car, himself or the police chasing him,” said Lt. Brad Easterwood, with the Carrollton Police Department

The woman passenger with Gilstrap was briefly detained but not charged. He took off when he crashed his truck.

“We first heard somebody crash down here at the light then I saw a cop pull down the road,” said Kristen Dean, a witness to the incident.

Kristen and Shawn Dean told FOX 5 News they now realize the crash they heard was Gilstrap crashing his truck last Thursday night.

The next noise they heard was him on their roof then police trying to get him down.

“He’s on the roof of a building on Robinson, I got him,” said one of the officers on body cam video.

At the time police did not know if Gilstrap was armed and could be perched with a weapon, neither did the Deans.

“I came to the living room raised the blinds and I saw about six or seven policemen pointing to the roof,” said Shawn Dean, a witness to the incident.

Gilstrap, not too gingerly, got off the roof with help from police.

He now faces 19 charges, many felonies, including DUI, reckless driving, 5 counts of running red lights, driving on the wrong side of the street and others. 

Gilstrap is in jail after his rooftop getaway attempt went awry.

“People don’t make right decisions sometimes.

I’m just glad police got to him as fast as they did,” said Shawn Dean.

On body cam video Gilstrap is heard complaining about pain. Carrollton Police told FOX 5 News that was from a previous injury from a motorcycle crash, which wasn’t made better in this incident.