HPD chief: Officer fatally shoots armed teen
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said the city needs to “do a little bit better” Friday night, hours after one of the department’s veteran officers fatally shot a young man armed with an assault rifle in northeast Houston.
Prior to the officer-involved shooting, police saw a social media post around 7 p.m. of a group of males holding weapons at an apartment complex in the 6700 block of Bennington, Finner said.
The lone officer, who has been with the department for six years, approached the group at the apartment at 8:52 p.m., at which time he saw that they all were armed, according to the chief. The males ran when they saw the officer.
In the midst of the on-foot pursuit, one of the teens pointed an assault rifle in the direction of the officer and shot several times, Finner said. The officer then pulled out his service weapon and fired back, killing the 17- or 18-year-old male, he said.
“We protect and serve, we don’t sign up to shoot people,” Finner told reporters at a staging area after the shooting. “... I talked to some good people out here tonight. Families are hurting and I’m praying for them.”
About seven or eight males were taken into custody and questioned, according to Finner. He did not say if they were charged with any crimes.
Five guns, including the assault rifle the deceased had, were recovered by police, the chief said.
“We cannot be out here, a group of us, with five guns because we’re going to get calls in,” Finner said. “And it’s on open social media.”
Finner urged any armed individual who comes into contact with the police to “please just drop the guns” so everyone can get home safe.
“We all got to make better decisions because I talked to our officer as well, and people think that we’re not human,” the chief said. “We are, and he’s hurting.”
The officer who fired the fatal shot will be put on administrative leave in accordance with the department’s policies, Finner said. The agency’s internal investigations department will conduct an administrative investigation into the shooting, while criminal investigators will handle the crime aspects.
“I want to pray for the families in this apartment complex,” Finner said. “We know that it’s been a lot of problems, but it doesn’t mean the people here are bad people. We all need to get together and see what we can do to clean it up.”
There have been 12 officer-involved shootings so far in 2023, which is down from 2022’s and 2021’s totals of 29, according to city data.