Houston woman says she saw METRO shooting suspect run through her neighborhood before his capture

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- METRO police spent hours hunting down a 16-year-old shooting suspect they said escaped from their custody on Thursday, and ABC13 is working to learn how it all happened in the first place.

A shocked woman told ABC13 that when she saw the suspect, she immediately called 911.

"I saw this young man just running, but then he passed my driveway and he stopped," the woman said.

That young man was the 16-year-old shooting suspect. He was captured on surveillance video that was shared with ABC13.

METRO police said they were interviewing the suspect at their downtown headquarters in relation to a shooting that sent a woman to the hospital in critical condition Thursday morning.

But while he was in for questioning, they said he escaped.

ORIGINAL REPORT: Suspect involved in METRO bus shooting now in custody after hour plus-long manhunt police say

"So, I called 911," the woman said.

An hour-long search for him, captured on SkyEye, ended near Danna Lane and Fulton Street after a woman, who does not want to be identified, told ABC13 she spotted the 16-year-old.

"She asked me about his shirt, and I said no shirt, only the black pants, no shirt, and his hair was puffy," she said. "I (told) her I saw handcuffs on him."

Law enforcement is still working to determine how he fled their facility and ended up in the north Houston neighborhood.

In a statement, METRO police say:

"We are conducting a thorough internal review to understand how yesterday's incident occurred and to ensure measures are in place to prevent this from happening again. METRO Police is fully committed to transparency and accountability in this process."

For the longtime resident, she says this was a first for their dead-end street.

"The many years that I've lived here, I think that's the first commotion that I've seen," she said.

Police say the victim who was shot Thursday morning had a successful surgery but is still in critical condition.

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