Houston Police shot and arrested the unidentified “Hispanic male” who gunned down the wife of a Deputy constable and her four-year-old child. The apparently planned ambush happened in the early hours of the morning and the suspect was in custody by Sunday afternoon, critically wounded. Police tried their best to put him in cuffs when they spotted him but the assassin was determined to go down shooting. Another family with children, including a newborn, suddenly found themselves in serious danger when they almost got caught in a blaze of crossfire.
Assassin gunned down
A couple with three children, one a newborn baby, were inside their Houston home in the 500 block of West Greens Road, near Antoine Drive around 5:45 p.m. Sunday, June 20, minding their own business. They had no idea that just a few moments before, HPD spotted the man who gunned down the deputy’s family “in the area of Greens Road and I-45” and “tried to pull him over.” It didn’t go as planned.
“The suspect fired at the officers and then drove two blocks west,” Chief Troy Finner reports. Cops were ready for that. “Officers attempted a maneuver to stop the vehicle.” When they did, the suspect fired at the officers a second time. Officers did not return fire either time they were shot at.”
“The suspect kept going about two more blocks and then crashed at the intersection of Northborough and Greens.” When he got out of the vehicle, “he fired at officers a third time.” By then, the cops were getting a little upset with being gunned for. “This time officers returned fire and struck the suspect several times.” He was wearing body armor.
When he fired “into the window of the family’s home before barging in through the back door,” Houston police “confirmed the suspect was armed with body armor, a shotgun and an assault rifle.” Police were right behind. “The mother and children narrowly escaped as the deputy fired back at the suspect,” police relate.
Police Chief @TroyFinner Media Briefing on Shooting at 2210 West Dallas https://t.co/Sar6I4CSDF
— Houston Police (@houstonpolice) June 20, 2021
For a brief while, the “wanted suspect exchanged gunfire with HPD SWAT officers.” No officers were hit by bullets but the suspect “was taken to an area hospital in critical condition.”
They “don’t know what the motive was for this,” Chief Finner explains. When he gunned down the Deputy’s wife and daughter, they don’t known if it was “targeted or anything.” All we know is “he forced entry.”
The deputy shot back
The initial incident happened about 2:20 a.m. Sunday when the attacker, “wearing all black,” and armed “with a shotgun and some kind of assault weapon” forced his way into the deputy’s apartment and gunned down the family.
The wife was struck in the leg and is “okay.” Her daughter “was shot in the arm. She required surgery and is in stable condition.” The unidentified Deputy returned fire. “The deputy did exchange gunfire with the suspect and a blood trail was left behind.”
UPDATE: Our SWAT officers just searched an apartment where the shooting occurred and the suspect was not located.
We will have a media briefing from the scene in about 30 mins. #hounews https://t.co/dKmNfqJmdd
— Houston Police (@houstonpolice) June 20, 2021
When SWAT arrived they thought the guy might be barricaded inside but that turned out to be false intelligence. He was gone by the time they got there. He may have gunned down the family of a cop but he left a trail of blood and Houston PD was determined to follow it.
“Anytime a citizen gets shot in Houston, let alone a deputy’s or officer’s family, it’s something we take seriously, but a lot of investigation has to go on with it,” Chief Finner relates.
The man who gunned down innocent people like it was a walk in the park was initially described in alert bulletins as “a Hispanic male and around 5 feet 5 inches tall.”
We now know that “the suspect has a history of mental illness and his family was cooperating with authorities.”
