The incident happened around 4pm Tuesday at an apartment complex in the 6400 block of Bankside in southwest Houston.
Some might call it a tedious task, but it was possibly a walk to the mailbox that might have said the woman's life.
As officers with weapons drawn and a K-9 made their way to a second-floor unit, the tenant, minutes before, had walked to the complex mailbox. The woman, whose identity we're concealing, said she noticed a man in a truck quickly park and jump out.
"And I noticed a guy running, but I just went on to the mailbox because the mailbox was over there. As I was coming from the mailbox, I noticed I didn't have any mail and I noticed the police cars was coming in," the woman said.
Some of those police cars had been chasing 44-year-old Richard Scott Carroll. The registered sex offender was under pursuit for trying to break in to several homes in Meyerland.
"During the chase, he went through several yards, knocking the fences down. At one point he went down a cul-de-sac and the officers believed they had him, had him at gunpoint," Harris County Precinct 5 Assistant Chief JJ Laine said.
But Carroll slipped away after ramming a Precinct 5 cruiser. Randomly, he turned into the woman's apartment complex; then, trying to hide, he kicked in the first door he could find.
Seeing the police cars pile into her complex, the woman sought the refuge of her upstairs unit but was stopped by police.
"I said let me run to my house so I can be safe and then I realized they said the person was here," the woman said.
He was there only for a short time because the officers, and particularly the K-9, forcibly brought out Carroll.
And now the woman is just glad it was time to check the mailbox.
"I was so nervous and scared. I thank the Lord I wasn't in here because something could have happened to me," she said.
The suspect was taken Ben Taub General Hospital to get treated for a few dog bites. He's also charged with felony evading arrest and aggravated assault on a peace officer.
