15-year-old Wylie boy killed after crashing into truck during police chase
WYLIE, Texas - A 15-year-old is dead after a police chase that began in Wylie ended with a crash in Collin County Wednesday afternoon.
Wylie police said it all started just before 3 p.m. with a domestic disturbance call at an apartment complex involving a mother and her son. He has been identified as 15-year-old Austin Schell.
Latonya Thompson was in her apartment near the corner of South Fifth Street and Oak Street when she heard her next-door neighbor yell for help.
“So I ran out here and I saw her coming toward me covered in blood,” she recalled. “She said, ‘My son has beaten me. He's hit me with a bat. He may have a gun.’ She didn't know. She was just very hysterical. Very frightened. Very scared for her life pretty much.”
Thompson and other neighbors called 911. Shortly after, the witnesses said they saw Schell drive off in his mom's SUV. Police passed him on their way there.
Wylie police found the woman bleeding from her head in the parking lot. They also caught up with her son and tried to pull him over but he sped off. Officers chased the teen into Farmersville on State Highway 78.
Schell drove over spike strips and kept going for about two more miles before he drove into oncoming traffic and crashed into a truck carrying porta-potties. He was killed in the crash, police said.
Police believe Schell hit his 40-year-old mom with a baseball bat several times in the head, causing severe injuries. She was taken to the hospital and remains in intensive care.
While neighbors said the boy was a good kid, they also said police were called out to the home recently.
Police confirmed they have had past encounters with the 15-year-old but haven't said more. They also haven't said whether Schell had a gun.
Both the Wylie and Farmersville police department will continue to investigate the case.