The 15 mile chase started in Willis, when an officer tried to stop Bryan Carnes for a traffic violation. The pursuit ended on I-45 in The Woodlands, where a deputy fatally shot Carnes.
Lisa Horace, a friend of the victim, said, "It's hard to believe. Bryan was a good guy."
Horace says the Bryan Carnes she knew was big on two things -- his family and motorcycles.
"Him and my husband, they were together a lot," Horace said. "I mean, he had just called him and told him he was selling his motorcycle or he had just sold it."
Friends say it makes the circumstances surrounding his death that much harder to believe. Carnes was killed early Tuesday morning, fatally shot after leading deputies on a chase on I-45 for several miles through Montgomery County. The chase started in Willis after a police officer tried to pull him over for running a red light.
Neighbor Callie Flores said, "I was like, 'Oh my gosh!' I couldn't believe it. I was in shock. I'm still in shock."
Carnes was a paraplegic and had a wheelchair in the bed of his truck. Authorities say at times he tried lowering it onto the freeway using a boom lift in an attempt to run the officers off the road. Authorities say during the chase Carnes was throwing things out of his window -- items that appeared to be some type of a narcotic.
Carnes eventually lost control of his vehicle and stopped near the Woodlands Parkway after police successfully deployed spike strips.
Lt. Dan Norris with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said, "The driver opened his door and was yelling, 'Shoot me! Shoot me, I have a gun. I have a gun, shoot me.'"
Investigators say a deputy shot Carnes at least three times in the chest after he reached below his seat several times and pulled something out from underneath it, though police haven't said what that was.
Horace says Carnes' alleged behavior is totally out of character
"I don't know," she said. "I've never known him to carry a gun. Like I said, all I know is he was a good guy."
The deputy involved in the early morning shooting has been place on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, which is standard procedure during officer-involved shootings.
Neighbors say Carnes was involved in an accident a few months ago in which another person died. Some say he had been depressed since that incident.
