HPD officers shoot armed man to death

A man who police say threatened officers with a pistol was fatally shot on Houston’s south side on Friday.

Police were called to an apartment complex in the 5901 Selinsky Road for reports that a man was trying to break into a unit there.

Houston Police Assistant Chief Bobby Dobbins said that the two officers, each of whom has at least four years of policing experience, then found the unidentified man brandishing a pistol and telling them “Go ahead” or “I’m ready.”

A woman was yelling to officers that the man had tried to break into her apartment, police said.

After the man refused to put the gun down and turned to them as he raised his hand, officers opened fire, Dobbins said. He died at the scene. It was unclear how many times he was struck.

“We think the officers did a good job,” Dobbins said. “Unfortunately, they had to take a man’s life tonight. We’re never happy about that, but officers have to protect themselves and, unfortunately, he raised the gun and put their lives in danger.”

The officers had been in the area for a call of shots fired at a nearby apartment complex. The two officers were responding to that call in the 10900 block of Martindale Road when they were dispatched to the scene where they encountered the gunman.

“It was kind of chaotic for a while,” he said. “There were a lot of people out by the pool and a lot of things going on at one time.”

It’s unclear if the deceased man was connected to the earlier shooting, which injured one woman, who is in stable condition, Dobbins said.

The two scenes were within walking distance, he said, so it’s possible that the man moved to the apartment complex after police were called to the prior shooting.

Neither the deceased man, a black man in his 30s, nor the officers were identified Saturday.

It marks the first time in three months in which an HPD officer has discharged a weapon, according to the department’s website.

The last fatal shooting by a Houston police officer was on Jan. 28, when a husband and wife were killed during a botched raid at their home in Pecan Park.

The no-knock raid has since been investigated by various agencies, and has led to the dismissal of dozens of cases handled by two narcotics division officers who are also under investigation.