John Phillip Lally, Jr.

Lally and his fiancée Jennifer Garza

A Nov. 11, 2023, shoot-out on a Houston freeway left one police officer shot and others immediately seeking cover after a 19-year-old man crashed a stolen vehicle and then opened fire on the pursuing police. Officer Jonathan Gibson, 29, had approached the car and ordered the driver out of the car, when he was shot in the left leg. Gibson attempted to hobble away as his partner provided cover and shot at the stolen car from their police cruiser. John Phillip Lally, Jr., a 40-year-old delivery truck driver from Houston, was stopped on the freeway. Lally exited his truck and saw Gibson fall, unable to seek cover from the shooting. Amid the gunfire, Lally shouted to Gibson and told him to come toward him as he moved closer. Another officer reached Gibson and dragged him by his ballistic vest about 25 feet as Lally approached. Lally grasped Gibson’s vest while he walked backwards with the other officer, and pulled Gibson about 40 feet to cover behind Lally’s truck. The assailant was shot by police and later died. Gibson was admitted to a hospital and was released a few days later. Lally was not injured during the incident.

With his cell phone, John Phillip Lally, Jr. began recording the scene where a Houston Police officer, Jonathan Gibson, tried to move to safety after a man in a stolen vehicle shot him in the left leg. In this view, from behind the trailer of the delivery truck Lally was driving, Lally was about 75 feet from Gibson. Photo courtesy of John Phillip Lally, Jr.