National Guard soldiers held at gunpoint while transporting vaccines to Matador

MATADOR—The mobile Covid-19 vaccination clinic scheduled for downtown Matador on Monday went ahead with only a few minutes’ delay despite severe weather in the area—and the State Mobile Vaccination Team’s unexpected encounter with a gunman en route.

As reported by Lubbock media, Larry Lee Harris, 66, of Wilcox, Arizona, was jailed Monday, March 22, after being accused of following the National Guard team’s three vans from a Love’s Travel Station in Lubbock onto Highway 62/82 toward Idalou, where Idalou police chief Eric Williams said Harris attempted to run the vans off the road, then stopped the vans by turning his vehicle into oncoming traffic.

The suspect then pulled a pistol and told the uniformed but unarmed National Guardsmen to get out of the vans so that he could search them. Harris said that he was a detective and later told police that he believed the men were kidnappers. Though Harris had a loaded weapon, no one was hurt, and he was taken into custody by the Idalou police without further incident. He is currently being held in the Lubbock County Detention Center.

Harris is being held on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and unlawful restraint of eleven National Guardsmen early Monday morning. He was also charged with unlawful carrying of a weapon, impersonating a public servant, and interference with Texas military forces.

The National Guardsmen were on their way to deliver vaccines to Matador as part of the Texas Department of Emergency Management’s effort to make inoculations available to home bound and elderly residents in rural areas. Clinics like the one scheduled Monday at the Motley County Library Annex have previously been held in Matador and Paducah for those who are unable to travel to larger cities to get access to the vaccines. A State Mobile Vaccine Pilot Program team delivered one hundred doses on February 5, and those who received it then have also had their second dose. Monday’s clinic was intended to provide another opportunity for a first dose to those who still needed it.

Motley County law enforcement confirmed that the clinic still took place on Monday. According to Carla Meador, director of the Motley County Library, where the clinic was scheduled to take place, “the clinic was delayed by ten or fifteen minutes, but it did go ahead as planned.”