HCSO: Minister shot & killed with his own gun during home invasion

Intruder wrestled gun away during struggle

HARRIS COUNTY – A minister was killed with his own gun as he tried to confront an intruder at his northwest Harris County home early Friday.

Just after midnight, deputies were called out to a home in the 4200 block of Amber Lake Drive in the Deerfield Village subdivision.

Investigators said the minister, 69-year-old Donald Frazier, and his wife woke up when they heard their generator turn on.

Frazier noticed the entry door to the garage was open so grabbed his gun and went outside to investigate. That is when he saw a man in his garage and the two began to fight.

Frazier's wife saw the struggle and called 911, according to investigators.

During the struggle, deputies said the intruder, later identified as 30-year-old Daniel Durham, managed to grab Frazier's gun and shoot him with it.

Neighbors said they thought the gunshots were fireworks.

"It was about three or four hours into our sleeping and we heard some pops. It was real crisp. It sounded like a small-caliber gun maybe a .22," neighbor Rick Soto said.

Frazier died at the scene.

Deputies said they caught Durham not far from the home. He was in another part of the same neighborhood and had blood on his t-shirt, shorts and legs.

"He has been cooperating with investigators here at the scene and so hopefully when we get him down to the office we can get a statement from him and find out exactly what is going on," Ben Beall with the Harris County Sheriff's Office said.

Neighborhood security told deputies they actually saw the alleged intruder and questioned him earlier in the evening but let him go after discovering his mother lived in the subdivision.

They believe they recovered the victim's gun in a garbage can near the suspect's mother's home.

Neighbors said Frazier was a well-known figure in the community, even serving as the chaplain for the Katy Police Department for a time.

Both Frazier's wife and Durham's mother are being questioned, deputies said.

Durham has been charged with murder and is being held on $50,000 bond. He has a previous charge from Dec. 2011 for driving while intoxicated