A man died after he led police on a short chase and then crashed into a north Houston home early Thursday morning, narrowly missing a woman sleeping in her bedroom.

The crash happened about 2 a.m. on East Hardy near Turner, said John Cannon, a spokesman for the Houston Police Department.

Cannon said the man, whose name has not been released, died at the scene.

Cannon said an big-rig trucker flagged down an officer to say he had seen a white Ford F-150 pickup driving on East Crosstimbers without its headlights after the driver had just left a nearby bar.

The officer spotted the pickup a short time later, turned on his emergency lights and tried to pull the truck over, Cannon said. But the driver sped away and turned onto the northbound East Hardy.

After brief chase, Cannon said, the suspect apparently lost control of the pickup and rammed into the front of a house, demolishing portions of the front porch and crashing into a bedroom.

A 62-year-old woman sleeping in a bedroom barely escaped injury, Cannon said. The impact shoved her bed against the back wall and shattered her headboard. She crawled from the debris shaken, but had only a few cuts and scrapes. She was treated at the scene

"She is very fortunate that she was not seriously injured or killed," Cannon said.

The woman's 54-year-old relative and his three sons, ages 20, 14 and 8, were also asleep in the home. They were not hurt, though the youngest son was sleeping on a couch in a room adjacent to the woman's bedroom.

Cannon said investigators were trying to determine what caused the suspect to drive away when the officer tried to stop him.

The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences is expected to perform an autopsy and will determine if he had alcohol in his system.

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