Deputies kill driver who fled; bystander wounded
A man evading a traffic stop was shot and killed by Harris County sheriff’s deputies Sunday in an exchange of gunfire in a strip mall parking lot west of Cypress Station, according to Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
A vehicle parked “at a distance” was also struck by gunfire, and the 48-year-old woman bystander inside was struck and taken to a hospital, Gonzalez wrote on X, formerly Twitter. A Red Honda was present on the scene around 8 p.m. Sunday with a bullet through the driver’s side door. It was parked near the entrance of Food Town, a grocery in the plaza. Gonzalez didn’t say who shot the woman. Her condition was serious and she underwent surgery, but she is expected to survive, according to Gonzalez.
A school bus that was driving through the parking lot was also struck by gunfire, Gonzalez wrote; he didn’t specify who struck the bus. Two adults were in the bus, and neither were injured, according to Gonzalez. A man and a woman were on the bus, which remained on the scene at 8 p.m.; both declined to be interviewed and later drove away.
Gonzalez didn’t specify when the shooting took place. An observer, Melitza Burgos, shared a video her daughter took while driving by the strip mall at 4:30
p.m. Sunday showing a man lying still on the ground at a Shell gas station in the plaza, with a police officer standing nearby.
According to Gonzalez, deputies conducted a traffic stop around the 1000 block of West FM 1960, where the male driver refused to exit the vehicle despite officers talking to him for over an hour. Spike strips were placed at the site of the initial traffic stop, but the man drove away, Gonzalez wrote.
An approximately two-minute police chase ensued, ending near FM 1960 and Ella Boulevard, Gonzalez wrote. The man, armed with a semi-automatic pistol, exited the car and began firing on the officers, Gonzalez wrote. Four officers — one sergeant and three deputies — fired back and struck the man; he was later determined to be dead at the scene, according to Gonzalez.
None of the officers reported injuries, Gonzalez wrote.