A man accused of trying to break into a vehicle in South San Antonio fled the scene, then circled back and slammed his Dodge Charger into a deputy's patrol Tahoe before speeding off again, according to the Bexar County Sheriff's Office. The suspect remains outstanding as of Saturday, and investigators are asking the public for help identifying him.
Deputies were dispatched to the 1800 block of Charlie Cove on Friday for a report of a theft in progress, with a caller describing a male attempting to unlawfully enter a vehicle, according to the Bexar County Sheriff's Office. When deputies arrived, they spotted a maroon Dodge Charger parked near the vehicle believed to have been targeted. As a deputy approached, the man behind the wheel took off, and deputies pursued the Charger in what the sheriff's office described as a short vehicle pursuit before terminating the chase.
That is not where the encounter ended. The driver returned to the same offense location on Charlie Cove and struck a patrol Tahoe with his vehicle before fleeing again, the sheriff's office said in its post. The address sits within Roosevelt Landing, a newly built single-family subdivision in southern Bexar County within the Southside Independent School District, according to HAR.com.
What the Suspect Could Face
The decision to come back and ram a marked patrol vehicle carries far heavier legal weight than the original car-burglary attempt. Breaking into or entering a vehicle with intent to commit theft is ordinarily a Class A misdemeanor under Texas Penal Code § 30.04, according to FindLaw, punishable by up to a year in county jail. But intentionally using a vehicle to strike a peace officer performing official duties is classified as Aggravated Assault on a Public Servant under Texas Penal Code § 22.02(b)(2)(B) — a first-degree felony that can bring a sentence of 5 to 99 years or life in prison, per Justia Law.
Fleeing from deputies in a vehicle adds another layer of exposure. Evading arrest is typically a misdemeanor, but when a motor vehicle is used to intentionally flee a peace officer, Texas Penal Code § 38.04 elevates it to a third-degree felony carrying two to 10 years in prison, according to the same Justia Law analysis. The suspect fled twice in the same incident — first when deputies approached, and again immediately after striking the Tahoe.
A Pattern of Rammings Across Bexar County
It is not the first time this year that a fleeing driver in Bexar County has used a vehicle as a weapon against law enforcement. In June, deputies were involved in a violent pursuit on Loop 410 in which a suspect intentionally rammed a patrol unit at speeds exceeding 100 mph before being taken into custody, according to a Bexar County Sheriff's Office Facebook video shared by News 4 San Antonio. The following month, a stolen muscle car pursuit in southwest San Antonio ended in a multi-vehicle crash and three arrests after the fleeing vehicle struck surrounding cars, KENS 5 reported.
Dodge Chargers in particular have become a recurring fixture in these cases. An August 2023 whole-vehicle theft study from the Highway Loss Data Institute found Dodge Charger HEMI and SRT Hellcat models ranked among the most-stolen vehicles nationwide for the 2020-2022 model years, with Hellcat theft claims occurring at more than 60 times the national average. A more recent August 2025 report noted the Charger has since dropped out of the top 20 for newer model years, though performance muscle cars broadly, led by the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, continue to dominate theft rankings, according to Cars.com.
San Antonio-area law enforcement has previously targeted these high-performance vehicles directly. In February 2024, San Antonio Police and Texas DPS officers impounded six vehicles — including a Dodge Charger and two Dodge Challengers — during a crackdown on illegal street racing and reckless driving, as Hoodline previously reported.
Deputies Followed Pursuit Policy Before the Return
Bexar County Sheriff's Office pursuit guidelines give deputies discretion to initiate chases but require them to disengage when hazardous conditions outweigh the need for immediate apprehension, a policy detailed by the San Antonio Express-News. Deputies appear to have followed that protocol by ending the initial chase of the Charger — only for the driver to return to the scene and escalate the encounter by striking the patrol Tahoe.
The sheriff's office, led by Sheriff Javier Salazar, is asking anyone with information about the outstanding suspect to come forward. Tips can be submitted by phone at (210) 335-6000 or by email at [email protected]. It remains unclear whether the deputy inside the struck Tahoe was injured, whether the Charger itself had been reported stolen, or whether any neighborhood cameras on Charlie Cove captured the incident — details the sheriff's office has not yet addressed publicly.
