DALLAS — Around noon last Sunday, Bedford police officers tried pull over a driver for speeding along the busy State Highway 183.
But instead of pulling over, police said, the driver called dispatchers and told them she had a gun in the car.
What ensued next was an hours-long ordeal.
The driver, later identified by police Shalunda Marie Hayes, eventually pulled over but refused to get out of her car, officials said. Police shut down the highway, and officers in tactical gear responded to the scene.
And so for the next two hours, Hayes sat in her parked vehicle with police stationed behind her and the eastbound lanes of traffic blocked.
Hayes ultimately surrendered to police, and the highway reopened.
But the incident was just the first of several high-profile problems on North Texas highways over the last week.
Two days later, another police incident along State Highway 183 shut down the same area as the Sunday incident. And over on the Dallas side of the Metroplex, a Tuesday morning crash along I-635 led to a fight, a stabbing and multiple people getting run over by their own vehicles, police said.
There was also an overturned semi-truck that shut down a major Interstate 345 ramp in Dallas on Wednesday afternoon, and a truck fire that shut down State Highway 114 lanes in Irving on Thursday morning.
Then, on Thursday evening, a Fort Worth chase ended in a standoff on a ramp at Interstate 35W and Loop 820, shutting down the interchange for hours. At one point, the suspect was seen sitting on the ledge of the ramp before surrendering to police.
For an area accustomed to major traffic incidents, it was certainly a hectic week on North Texas roads.
Here's a recap:
According to the Bedford Police Department, officers tried to pull a female driver over around noon Sunday due to speeding. Police said the woman did not pull over and called dispatch to tell them she had a gun in her car.
The woman was later identified as Shalunda Marie Hayes, 34. She was arrested and charged with evading arrest, detention with a vehicle, impersonating a public servant, resisting arrest search or transport and unlawfully carrying a weapon.
The woman pulled over, and Bedford police closed the highway shortly before 1 p.m. citing an "active police situation," according to a social media post from Bedford Police. All eastbound lanes of the highway between Brown Trail and Industrial Boulevard were closed for hours.
Hayes was taken into custody without incident. She faces charges of evading arrest, impersonating a public servant and unlawfully carrying a weapon.
All westbound lanes of SH 183 between Industrial Boulevard and Murphy Drive were closed Tuesday evening.
According to a Facebook post by the Bedford Police Department, the closure was due to a police incident. This closure includes express lanes and the access road.
Police didn't release details about what happened but the highway was reopened later that evening.
Multiple cars crashed. Good Samaritans were run over by their own vehicles. And a bystander, who tried to fight the suspect with a pipe, was stabbed in the stomach, police said.
This was the chaotic scene - described by police in an arrest warrant affidavit - that unfolded during Tuesday morning rush hour along I-635 in Northeast Dallas.
Three victims were hospitalized, including one in critical condition, and all westbound lanes of the highway at Forest Lane were shut down for over four hours, according to officials.
Police said one suspect was responsible for the incident. Angel Zamora-Moreno, 26, was arrested after a group of bystanders were able to hold him down as police responded, according to police documents.
Zamora-Moreno was arrested on seven counts of aggravated assault, among other charges.
A vehicle crashed into a truck tractor-trailer shortly before 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, officials said, with the trailer blocking all lanes of traffic on Interstate 345 near downtown Dallas.
The shutdown, which lasted several hours, was on a key ramp from I-345 to Woodall Rodgers.
Multiple lanes of traffic on Interstate 35W and Northeast Loop 820 were closed after a police chase ended and an apparent standoff unfolded on an exit ramp Thursday evening.
The suspect in the incident was taken into custody around 10:30 p.m. after SWAT officers negotiated with him for about two hours.
The highway was reopened after the incident.
According to police, the north and southbound lanes of I-35W near the northbound ramp to Northeast Loop 820 were closed for several hours. In addition, police said the west and eastbound lanes of Northeast Loop 820 were also closed in the area.
At one point the suspect was standing with one leg on the ledge of the ramp and was very close to the edge while talking to officers.
The suspect's name has not been released.