Mother of man shot byHPD called him ‘menace to society’
old The man mother shot and of a 28-year- wounded Monday by a Houston police officer near Hobby Airport pleaded with a judge last year to keep her son jailed for being a “menace to society,” according to court records.
Danielle Pope, out on bond since November following an aggravated a s-ing. sault of a family member charge, threatened to kill a toddler during a carjacking in the latest incident that led to an officer shooting him. He pointed a gun at a woman and her child after midnight Monday as the two waited in a car for a family member at a gas station near Beltway 8 and Telephone Road.
He then threatened to shoot the child if the woman did not hurry up and get out of the car, court records show. Records outlined the initial incident and how police tracked him 5 miles away to the 7600 block of Airport Bou-levard, where he was shot around1:30 a.m. during an exchange of fire with officers.
Pope, who remains hospitalized, has since been charged with three counts of aggravated robbery with a deadlyweapon, two counts of aggravated assault against a public servant and felon in possession of a weapon. Records show Pope had been out on a second $40,000 bond for an ag-gravated assault of a family
member charge since November at the time of the officer-involved shooting. He posted his first bond in April following his 2019 arrest in connection to pistol-whipping his ex- girlfriend. The next month, Pope’s mother penned a letter asking that he remain jailed because of rampant theft and drug use, according to court filings.
“It’s all about drugs,” she said in a handwritten note. “I’m pleading to the judge to keep him in longer. No one in my family
wants him around. He’s a menace to society.”
Her letter was attached to a motion to surrender the principal in his bond. Judge Hazel B. Jones in the 174th District Court signed off on the request, and he was back in jail days later.
“When you consider the allegations in the new cases — someone who has the ability to point a gun at a toddler — it doesn’t surprise me that their own family would label them as a menace to society,” said Joseph Sanchez, the prosecutor handling the new round of charges.
Sanchez said the officers and childwere lucky to not have been
hurt.
Pope’s criminal history in Harris County dates back to 2010 with four felony convictions — theft, drug possession and weapon charges among them.
During the latest incident, the woman told police that she got her child out of the car and the returning family member confronted him. Pope is alleged to have pointed a gun at him and told him to back up as he drove in reverse.
A sergeant later spotted the stolen vehicle near the 7600 block of Airport Boulevard and gave chase.
The vehicle cameto stop with a blown tire, and the suspect got
out with the gun raised at officers, court records show. He is said to have fired at least two shots at the officers, who returned fire while taking cover behind a patrol car.
The officer — sworn into HPD in July 2018 — shot Pope once.
The shooting remains under investigation by HPD’s Special Investigations Unit and the Internal Affairs Division, which — along with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office — is conducting a review.
Prosecutors have since requested that Pope be held without bond. He is slated to appear in court Wednesday morning.
The incident marked the second officer-involved shooting of 2021 — with the first fatality happening last week during a joint law enforcement operation at a HarrisCounty motel. In that case, a Houston police officer shot and killed 27-year-old Jose Guzman, a possible suspect in a string of armed robberies.
Itwas not knownif charges had been filed against two other men detained in that incident. Police spokesman Victor Senties said robbery investigators are showing photos of the men to witnesses in other cases.