Veteran narcotics officers broke down the door of a suspected drug den in southeast Houston Monday afternoon, armed with a warrant and hoping to arrest heroin dealers operating out of the Pecan Park home.
They were met by a hail of gunfire, instead, as one of the suspects inside unleashed a barrage of bullets that wounded four officers, two critically.
"This is never one of the calls you want to get as a chief," Police Chief Art Acevedo said outside Memorial Hermann Hospital hours later, while flanked by top police brass, Mayor Sylvester Turner and a host of other city officials.
Two suspected drug dealers were killed in the incident by return fire from officers, Acevedo said, explaining a tip from a concerned neighbor led to the raid. The two killed by police were not identified.
Late Monday, two of the officers remained in critical condition but stable while undergoing surgery . One is the 54-year-old case agent leading the investigation, the police chief said. Two others were in good condition, while the last officer — shot in the shoulder — had already been released from the hospital.
The chaos on the tree-lined Harding Street began about 5 p.m., Acevedo said, when a dozen narcotics officers backed by a squad of uniformed patrol officers descended on the Pecan Park home to serve the search warrant. Narcotics officers had developed a case against the dealers— suspected of selling black tar heroin after making several undercover buys, according to law enforcement sources.
As officers rammed through the door to serve the warrant, their colleagues in marked patrol cars sounded their sirens and turned on their lights. They were immediately shot at by at least one gunman inside, the chief said, detailing the firefight.
Radio scanner traffic captured audio of one gunshot ringing out and an officer calling for help.
"We have an officer down," she yelled into her radio. "We need more ambulances, more ambulances."
A fifth officer injured his knee in the operation.
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/HPD-responding-to-report-of-several-officers-shot-13568491.php
