{"id":184834,"date":"2026-02-19T17:15:40","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T17:15:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/184834\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T17:15:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T17:15:40","slug":"a-police-officers-quick-thinking-and-an-elderly-woman-caught-in-the-chaos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/184834\/","title":{"rendered":"A police officer\u2019s quick thinking and an elderly woman caught in the chaos"},"content":{"rendered":"

HARRISON COUNTY, Miss. (WLOX) \u2014 A South Mississippi woman caught in the middle of the high-speed pursuit of firearm suspects is now praising the officers who rushed to her aid. <\/p>\n

On Wednesday, WLOX News interviewed her and met the Pass Christian police officer who brought the fleeing fugitives to a halt and credited dispatchers for making it happen.<\/p>\n

\"SheriffSheriff deputies and state troopers securing the U-Haul van that fled from Slidell, LA.(WLOX)<\/p>\n

Before the pursuit ended around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in Harrison County, Slidell Police Department responded to reports of gunfire behind the Aldi on Northshore Boulevard. According to officers, witnesses described a white U-Haul van fleeing the area immediately after shots rang out.<\/p>\n

Slidell PD told WLOX News, one of its officers spotted the suspect vehicle on the interstate and attempted to pull it over. That\u2019s when the pursuit began.<\/p>\n

Around the same time Tuesday afternoon, June Gautier left her Long Beach home to pick up lunch for her husband.<\/p>\n

\"JuneJune Gautier walking to her car parked outside her Long Beach home.(WLOX)<\/p>\n

The first restaurant she stopped at was closed, so she detoured to a different spot. She was driving south on Menge Avenue when her eyes drifted to her rearview mirror.<\/p>\n

\u201cI noticed there was a van coming really fast,\u201d she recalled, but said she didn\u2019t think it was anything other than a speeding vehicle.<\/p>\n

\"JuneJune Gautier looking in her rear-view mirror.(WLOX)<\/p>\n

Pass Christian Police Department\u2019s Capt. Ryan Henry was in the area when he heard dispatch advise that a fleeing vehicle from Louisiana was now southbound on Menge Avenue and headed his way.<\/p>\n

When the U-Haul van passed June Gautier on the single-lane roadway, she felt her sedan shake hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kinda knocked my wheel off the pavement and I said, they hit me!\u201d Gautier said.<\/p>\n

A metal pipe had hit Gautier\u2019s tire and punctured the wall, leaving a hole in the rubber. Then she watched a fleet of law enforcement vehicles fly past her in pursuit of the U-Haul van.<\/p>\n

\"HoleHole punched in June Gautier’s tire during pursuit of the U-Haul van.(WLOX)\"CaptainCaptain Ryan Henry deploying a spike strip outside the Pass Christian Police Department.(WLOX)<\/p>\n

Further down the road, Capt. Henry stood ready with a spike strip in his hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cA white Ford Transit van came speeding down Menge Avenue and I knew that was our suspect vehicle,\u201d Henry said. \u201cAs I saw it coming, I deployed [the strip] in the roadway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henry has been a law enforcement officer for seven years, but he had never deployed spike strips outside of training. It didn\u2019t matter, though, because the officer bulls-eyed the moving target, shredding the fleeing van\u2019s tires.<\/p>\n

It was an adrenaline-inducing moment, Henry said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vehicle is traveling very fast, it\u2019s close to you, there are patrolmen trying to catch up to it,\u201d Henry said. \u201cIt can be [a lot of pressure].\u201d <\/p>\n

The one-in-a-million shot would not have happened without the dispatchers, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunication is key. The dispatchers did a terrific job in letting us know when the vehicle was coming, which allowed me to be in the right place at the right time,\u201d Henry said.<\/p>\n

\"CaptainCaptain Ryan Henry during the interview with Noah Noble.(WLOX)<\/p>\n

The two occupants of the U-Haul van fled, but didn\u2019t make it far: Cheyenne Kirkpatrick and Seth Johnson were arrested and charged with felony fleeing.<\/p>\n

While sheriff\u2019s deputies and state troopers secured the scene, Pass Christian police officers checked on June Gautier and her damaged sedan.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The officers] put my spare tire on, they fixed everything that needed to be fixed,\u201d she said. \u201cThey were so nice. I was so impressed by them. They were so kind and professional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirkpatrick was also charged with obstruction of justice charge, and Johnson was charged with discharging a firearm.<\/p>\n

\"CheyenneCheyenne Kirkpatrick and Seth Johnson.(WLOX)<\/p>\n

See a spelling or grammar error in this story? Report it to our team HERE<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 WLOX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARRISON COUNTY, Miss. (WLOX) \u2014 A South Mississippi woman caught in the middle of the high-speed pursuit of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[87230,723,47055,87235,87234,15992,87233,87232,131,133,132,87228,236,4248,87229,87231,87227,31868],"class_list":{"0":"post-184834","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-cheyenne-kirkpatrick","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-dispatch","11":"tag-dispatcher","12":"tag-hancock-county-sheriff","13":"tag-harrison-county","14":"tag-harrison-county-sheriff","15":"tag-high-speed-pursuit","16":"tag-long-beach","17":"tag-long-beach-headlines","18":"tag-long-beach-news","19":"tag-pass-christian-police","20":"tag-police","21":"tag-police-pursuit","22":"tag-ryan-henry","23":"tag-seth-johnson","24":"tag-slidell-police","25":"tag-true-crime"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}