HPD officer on leave after gunshot misses fleeing man

A Houston Police Department officer was placed on administrative leave after firing his weapon at a man running from a Friday night crash involving a stolen vehicle, police said Monday.

The bullet missed the fleeing man and went through a window of a west Houston apartment, police said. No one was hit.

Police officials said the officer fired his weapon because he believed the man, who was the subject of a shooting complaint earlier in the day, was reaching for a gun as he ran.

The foot chase ended when the man surrendered, police said. Lester Kendrick Johnson, 41, was arrested and charged with evading arrest in a motor vehicle and felon in possession of a firearm, Houston police said Monday.

Officer Phillip Hoss, a 15-year member of the Houston Police Department, was placed on administrative leave while the shooting is investigated by the department’s special investigations unit and the internal affairs division. A police spokesman on Monday described the suspension and investigations as customary after an officer fires a service weapon while in city limits.

The shooting happened around 9 p.m. Friday at at 8701 Town Park Drive.

Around 4 a.m. Friday morning, hours before the shooting, police had been called to the same address about a man who had fired a gun in the air while leaving an apartment following a fight with his girlfriend, police said. The man took the girlfriend’s Honda Accord and left the complex, police said.

Around 9 p.m., officers spotted the man, who police identified as Johnson, in the Accord and attempted to pull it over. The car didn’t stop, and sped away, hitting several vehicles, police said. The chase ended in the Urban Palms apartment complex, when the man leapt from the still moving vehicle, allowing the car to crash into a parked car in the lot.

Hoss fired at the man as he ran, officials said.

Houston Police Department Cmdr. Michael Collins on Friday night said Hoss believed Johnson was reaching for a gun in his waistband as he ran. Officers had also been told Johnson could be armed with a rifle and other weapons, based on the information from the earlier complaint.

Johnson’s bond was denied and he was in custody at the Harris County Jail as of Monday night, according to jail records.

On Monday, Johnson’s attorney Emily A. Shelton said he was injured in a fall at the end of the chase and he didn’t have a gun on him during the foot pursuit. She also questioned if the shot fired by the officer was fired as a warning shot, which would violate the police department’s general orders for when an officer can use their weapons.

Shelton is next scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 24.

As of Aug. 4, Houston Police Department officers had been involved in 12 on-duty shootings this year, according to the department’s self-reported numbers. Police officers have fired their weapons at a lowest rate per month since 2019, when the year ended with 21 officer-involved shootings.