Guard troops hauling vaccine held at gunpoint

It was before 9 a.m. Monday on the edge of Lubbock when a man, armed with a loaded pistol, allegedly barreled down the highway in hot pursuit of Texas National Guard members, furious about the imagined cargo.

The soldiers were transporting COVID-19 vaccine to a town 80 miles away, authorities said. But Larry Harris, a 66-year-old Arizona man, later told police he thought the three unmarked white vans were involved in the kidnapping of a woman and child.

Harris tried to run the vans off the road, then swerved into oncoming traffic to stop them before ordering 11 soldiers out at gunpoint, culminating in a bizarre moment that left them shaken on the side of a small-town highway road, said Idalou Police Chief Eric Williams.

"Some were so young, I thought they may have been part of an ROTC detachment," Williams said.

Harris was arrested soon after police arrived and charged with several offenses, including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and an obscure law that makes it a crime to interfere with Texas military forces, Williams said. The soldiers weren’t harmed in the incident.

Harris apparently pursued the soldiers almost as soon as they left an armory in Lubbock. They stopped at a gas station across the highway for drinks, Williams said, and Harris followed the convoy from there.

After he stopped the vans, Harris pointed a .45-caliber pistol at one of the soldiers, said he was a detective, and ordered the soldiers out of the vehicles, Williams said. One of the soldiers called 911, and Idalou officers arrived a few minutes later and arrested Harris without incident.

Harris had another pistol magazine in a pocket and a third magazine in his truck, along with more ammunition. None of the soldiers was armed, Williams said, which is typical for domestic responses, such as coronavirus-related missions.

The Department of Homeland Security asked to hold him and probably will bring federal charges, Williams said.

Williams said he believed the soldiers successfully delivered the vaccine supply to the town of Matador.