HPD officer in critical condition after being shot in the face

03:50 PM CDT on Monday, March 9, 2009

By Allison Triarsi and Rucks Russell / 11 News

HOUSTON – A veteran HPD undercover officer was still fighting for his life on Monday after being shot in the face Thursday night. Hospital officials say he has swelling in his brain and is still in critical condition.

Rick Salter, 54, and two other officers were serving a warrant in the 9300 block of East Avenue O. They reportedly announced themselves while taking down the burglar bars and that's when someone inside the house opened fire.

It was then, police say, that another officer shot and killed the suspect, Joel Alfaro.

Police said two young children who were in the home at the time were unharmed.

Fellow officers say Salter's injuries are extensive. They say the large-caliber bullet damaged arteries in the officer's face, affecting blood flow to his brain.

In a brief press conference outside the hospital Friday morning, Houston Mayor Bill White addressed the incident.

White said when he got the call about the shooting, he thought the worst.

The mayor said the injured officer seemed to respond when he and other visitors spoke to him, but that the matter was in “God’s hands, and not ours.”

“I would ask the public to remember men and women in uniform on all levels who put their lives at risk on our behalf,” White said.

Salter is married with two children.

Back at the scene of the shooting, another wife was crying for her dead husband.

"He had family too," Alfaro's wife, Sulema Aviles, said.

"He's not as bad as they're portraying him to be. We went to Target every week to go get groceries, that was our life. I have no one to protect me anymore. My children have no one to protect them anymore," she said.

Alfaro's family members insist that the police was guilty of an ambush.

"Like any other person, they would protect their home," said Alfaro's sister-in-law Olidia Aviles.

Alfaro's wife said officers searched her home but found no drugs.

Olidia Aviles said hat Alfaro was playing video games with his two children when the police took him by surprise.

"He's in there with his kids, why would he do that?" she said. "He was just trying to protect his family."

The children were not hurt, say authorities.

Houston Police Union President Gary Blankinship disagrees with Olidia Aviles' statements. He said officers believed heroin was inside the house and pointed out the mounted surveillance cameras.

"Your average homeowner doesn't have an elaborate video surveillance and lay in wait for police officers and shoot them when they come to the door," Blankinship said.

Police have reviewed what those cameras recorded and sources say it shows the officers made a textbook entry.