LAKE CONROE – From a disturbance at a lakeside restaurant/bar, to pursuit, to a crash and then an ambulance ride, it was a wild night for a 24-year-old Willis man.
Around 9:20 p.m. Friday night, The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office dispatched officers to a disturbance at Grampy Larry’s, located on Lake Conroe Hills, off of FM 1097. A vehicle description of the suspect’s Chevy Venture mini-van was dispatched as well.
Pct. 1 Deputy Constable Ray Rauen was in the area and saw the van just after hearing the dispatch. He turned around and pursued the vehicle it as it sped into the Lake Conroe Hills subdivision. Rauen searched the vehicle and found it a short time later, stopped alongside the road with the driver, Bryan Lee Cole, standing beside it.
Cole jumped into the van and again sped away. Rauen followed, but the pursuit was short-lived, as Cole rounded the corner on Ridgecrest Drive and lost control of the van, running off of the road and striking a culver. The impact caused the rear of the vehicle to leave the ground, coming back down against Kristina Bartlett’s vehicle that was parked beside the driveway.
Bartlett said she had just arrived at her mother’s home after driving from Missouri. Her mother, Linda Parsons, was sitting in the living room when the van crashed with such impact that it shook the walls of the house. It also struck the culvert so hard that it cracked the concrete driveway.
Cole was found unconscious and not wearing his seatbelt. North Montgomery County Fire Department and MCHD responded. Cole was transported by ground ambulance to Conroe Regional Medical Center in stable condition.
Pct. 1 is investigating the accident and awaiting lab results on Cole to determine what role alcohol might have played. Charges are pending.
