ATLANTA, Texas — A deranged gunman terrorized drivers on a busy Texas highway Friday afternoon, pointing his weapon at passing cars, including a terrified mother with children in the vehicle, before quick-thinking cops took him down in a dramatic roadside showdown.

The chaos unfolded around 1:34 p.m. on Loop 59 near Atlanta, a small East Texas town just past Texarkana in Cass County. Multiple callers dialed 911 after spotting the armed suspect walking in the middle of the road, waving a gun at every vehicle that drove by.

One woman, driving from St. Louis with her kids, captured the nightmare on video as the man approached her car and aimed directly at the windshield. “Our lives flashed before our eyes,” she later said in the circulating clip.

Officers from the Atlanta Police Department and neighboring Queen City PD raced to the scene. Bodycam and bystander footage shows the suspect refusing commands to drop his weapon and continuing to point it at passing motorists and arriving cops.

An Atlanta police officer fired, striking the suspect. The man went down as officers immediately rushed in to provide first aid. He was transported to Saint Michael Hospital, where he was listed in critical but stable condition. No officers, bystanders, or the mother and her children were injured.

In a classic Texas moment, an elderly man in a pickup truck with emergency lights pulled over to back up the officers. Video shows him drawing his own firearm while his wife took cover behind their vehicle. He later laid out a shotgun on the hood, holstered a pistol, and even grabbed a rifle, ready for whatever came next.

One officer was seen stumbling and falling after firing, likely tripping on the grassy berm in the heat of the moment, according to witnesses. No one was hurt in the fall.

The involved Atlanta officer has been placed on paid administrative leave per standard policy as the Texas Rangers lead the investigation.

Atlanta Police Chief Greg Restelle confirmed officers responded swiftly to multiple reports of the man pointing the gun at vehicles. “He would not drop his weapon,” sources familiar with the case said.