HPD officer shoots suspect downtown

02:14 PM CDT on Monday, June 16, 2008

By Courtney Zubowski / 11 News

HOUSTON -- A robbery suspect shot by police right in front of the Houston Police Department's headquarters Sunday night is in Ben Taub Hospital.

The shooting shut down several streets in downtown Houston. Police said around 7:30 p.m., 46-year-old Donald Gay was sitting in a Ford Taurus parked along Dallas.

Victor Daniel Lebron-Vasquez, who the driver of the Taurus first thought was a panhandler, walked up to the car. Police said he had a sweatshirt wrapped around his hand, and it looked like he was trying to conceal something. That's when Gay started yelling that he was trying to steal his car.

Officer Ha Crawford heard the driver screaming, and she walked out of the police station and shot Lebron-Vasquez in the abdomen one time.

Lebron-Vasquez is in critical, but stable, condition. Police have not yet said if the suspect had a gun, but he faces felony charges of robbery by threat.