Man is fatally shot by League City officer
Escaped suspect came at police with sharp-edged object
A man was fatally shot Wednesday by police in League City after he was found hiding in a closet and came at officers with a sharpedged instrument, according to the League City Police Department.
Police officers were serving the man a warrant at 323 Waco St. before the shooting at 10:23 a.m.
The man, identified by neighbors and through public records as Royce Sedotal, 49, was wanted by League City police after escaping custody Tuesday night following his arrest for a family violence charge. Officers went to his address with a warrant and were allowed inside by his girlfriend.
They found Sedotal in a closet. He came at the officers with a sharp-edge object, and an officer shot him, according to officer Kelly Williamson, spokesman for the League City Police Department. The man died at the scene, and no one else was injured.
Described as jovial, polite
The Galveston County Sheriff ’s Office was notified of the shooting at approximately 11 a.m. according to Sheriff Henry Trochesset.
Detectives from the Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Division and the Identification Bureau deputies responded to investigate the shooting. Detectives interviewed witnesses, spoke with neighbors and collected evidence at the scene. The Galveston County District Attorney’s office is also involved in the investigation.
The officer will be placed on paid administrative leave, Williamson said.
Sedotal’s house, a two-story bungalow on a corner lot of a sleepy section of League City with an above-ground pool in the front yard and a pickup parked in the driveway, was roped off by police on Wednesday afternoon.
After police left the area, a woman, Kenteena Wilson, exited Sedotal’s house in tears. Wilson said she had been with Sedotal for four years but declined to comment any further.
Neighbors who knew Sedotal described him as jovial and polite, always hanging out in his front yard or working on his house.
“We see him do garden stuff, working on his house with his wife in the pool, relaxing,” said Gia Hernandez, a neighbor whose house was directly behind Sedotal’s.
Seen yelling and pushing
Other neighbors said that Sedotal and Wilson had an occasionally tumultuous relationship, sometime arguing within earshot of the neighborhood.
“They’re usually really friendly hippie people, always outside planning and being silly. Every now and then they would get in an argument and it would be big but it was never like this,” said Miranda Sanders, who lived in an apartment complex across the street from Sedotal.
Sanders said her boyfriend saw Sedotal and Wilson while walking his dog, yelling and pushing each other in the early morning hours Wednesday.
“(My boyfriend) said they were really getting into it, they were really loud; I’m sure the cops were going to be called,” Sanders said.
Sedotal was previously arrested in 2013 for causing bodily harm to a family member, after throwing a humidifier at a former girlfriend. He pleaded no contest to the charge, reducing it to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge, and paid a $100 fine.
Sedotal was also arrested in 2014 for evading arrest. He pleaded no contest and served nine days in jail.
The investigation, as is the case with all officer-involved shootings, will be referred to the Galveston County Grand Jury. It is the third officer-involved shooting in League City in 2018.