Paper: Houston Chronicle

Date: Wed 05/06/2009

Section: B Page: 1 Edition: 3 STAR R.O.

UNEXPECTED VIOLENCE

A deadly first for Metro shooting: Officer ‘in fear of his life'

Officer shoots, kills man accused of assaulting woman near rail stop

By CAROLYN FEIBEL

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

A Metro police officer on Tuesday shot and killed a man suspected of assaulting a woman, the first fatal shooting by the transit agency's law enforcement division since it was created in 1982.

A bystander was wounded.

According to Houston police, who are investigating the shooting, a woman at the Memorial Hermann Hospital light rail station flagged down a Metro motorcycle officer around 10:30 a.m. to report she had been assaulted. Officer J.P. Zepeda approached a man suspected in the assault, who did not comply with instructions and acted in a threatening manner, police said.

The officer used his Taser, but the man pulled the darts out, seemingly unaffected, police said. He pulled a knife and began waving it as he walked through a nearby parking garage to Main Street, followed by the officer. The officer called for backup.

The two crossed Main and ended up on the gravel path that circles Rice University.

"They start coming up the jogging trail here, all the while the suspect continued to be non-compliant, waving the knife in a threatening manner," said Victor Senties, an HPD spokesman.

At that point, Metro motocycle officer R.L. Harrington arrived. He used his Taser twice on the man, again with no effect, police said. When the man started swinging his knife, Harrington shot the man, killing him on the oak-lined jogging trail, a City of Houston sidewalk.

‘Lunging moves'

Senties described the officer as being "in fear of his life" as the man made "lunging moves" toward him with the knife.

A woman nearby was hit in the upper arm by a bullet and was taken to nearby Ben Taub General Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

Metro Police Chief Thomas Lambert said it was too early to know if the department should take another look at its deadly force policies.

First, the investigation must be concluded he said. Then, "we'll go back and review that and see if we ought to do things differently."

"The officers did what they were trained to do as we understand it now," he said, "and we look forward to supporting them through this process."

Harrington will be reassigned to administrative duties, Lambert said. Both he and Zepeda have been with the department for 16 years.

The identity of the dead man was not available Tuesday.

carolyn.feibel@chron.com

ONLINE: See video footage from the scene of the shooting at chron.com

 

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