Michael Berry says he was carjacked while leaving concert

Former City Councilman Michael Berry says he was carjacked at knifepoint in a parking lot behind a southwest Houston nightclub after attending a concert there last month. The conservative radio host, whose term expired Wednesday after six years on the Houston City Council, was at the Firehouse Saloon, 5930 Southwest Freeway, on Dec. 22 attending Texas country musician Cory Morrow's show.

After leaving the concert, around 1 a.m. on Dec. 23, Berry said, he got in his Chevy Tahoe, put down his BlackBerry and put his keys in the ignition when a man wielding a knife entered the vehicle from the front passenger door.

While Berry tried to shield himself by lifting his arm in front of his face, another man entered the Tahoe from the back passenger door, he said.

"Then I realized there were two guys and I needed to get out," Berry said. As he got out of the Tahoe from the driver's side, a third unknown man, also carrying a knife, tried entering the vehicle from the same door, he said. "I ran past him and he started to chase me," Berry said.
Afraid he was going to be stabbed in the back, Berry said, he turned around to face the man, who then demanded Berry hand over his wallet.

"He only got a chance to ask me once," Berry said. "But the car was starting to drive away and he jumped in." Police found the abandoned Tahoe the same night at an apartment complex about 15 minutes away, only a few hours after Berry filed a report.
Berry wasn't injured.

"I gave my wife a big hug and said, 'Thank God I'm alive,' " Berry said.
Police have made no arrests.
Chronicle reporter Matt Stiles contributed to this report. By ANITA HASSAN Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle