NBC 5 Viewer Captures Decatur Shootout on Camera

Bowman: "I said, 'Is this really happening in Decatur, Texas?'"

An NBC 5 viewer was unbelievably close to the high-speed chase and shootout between Texas deputies and Colorado parolee Evan Spencer Ebel Thursday.

Chase Bowman was headed to lunch when he saw and 18-wheeler slam into a car at an intersection. His first thought was to run over and help the person in the car but then he saw law enforcement converge on the scene.

"Not 10 seconds later, there was about seven cop cars surrounding this guy. He's getting out of his vehicle, firing shots. And it just unleashed," he said. "It sounded like 20 or 30 shots probably, and he was down."

Bowman managed to grab his phone and starting recording video of what he saw.

"After most of all the shots were ended, I pulled out my phone to start recording this. Because I thought there had to be something going on here, you know, just to show my family and friends," he said.

Bowman said he was in shock at first.

"I don't know how to describe it, I guess off a movie," Bowman said. "You know, you hear like a machine gun, is kinda what it sounded like. I mean there were a lot of officers shooting it sounded like -- it was loud."

Luckily, none of the bullets were flying in Bowman's direction.

Ebel was gravely wounded in the shootout, the medical examiner says he was killed by a single gunshot to the mid-forehead.

Police said the chase started after Ebel shot a Montague County deputy during a traffic stop.  The deputy is expected to OK.

Investigators in Texas and Colorado are working together to determine if there is a link between Ebel and the shooting of Colorado state prisons chief Tom Clements.

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