A violent night of crime in Houston left one officer hospitalized, a suspect dead and three other people victims of separate robberies, including a priest who begged on his knees to be spared, police said.
A violent night of crime in Houston left one officer hospitalized, a suspect dead and three other people victims of separate robberies, including a priest who begged on his knees to be spared, police said.
The officer, who was shot in his lower stomach Thursday night, is now in stable condition after undergoing surgery that lasted several hours, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said at a press conference Friday morning.
The officer's name has not yet been released, but police described him as a 29-year-old man who has been on the force for five years. His father is a 42-year veteran with the police department, Acevedo said.
The suspect who was killed was shot by another officer who heard the shots fired and witnessed his fellow cop fall to the ground, according to Acevedo.
The "acts of violence" began around 9:56 p.m. at a Valero gas station on Scott Street, according to police, when four suspects allegedly approached a man getting gas for his 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe and demanded he give them his vehicle at gunpoint.
The man tried to explain that he was running on fumes and they wouldn't make it far, police said, but the suspects still fled with the vehicle.
Around 10:02, officers said they found the vehicle not far from the gas station and it appeared to have been abandoned because there was no gas.