HPD: Officer shoots armed suspect after home invasion, shootout in SW Houston

HOUSTON – A suspect was shot by a police officer after an apparent home invasion and shootout in southwest Houston, according to police.

Houston police said the shooting happened at around 2:45 p.m. on Wilcrest near the intersection of Burlingame, but the incident started several blocks away at a home on Montverde. Police said the armed man broke in and fired at least one shot.

The homeowner and his family were there at the time with some children, then fled the home.

Neighbors tell Local 2 they heard two gunshots and saw a man walking down the street. They called 911 and police were on their way. An officer saw the suspect and tried to get him to stop. 

"Police proceeded right here and told him to stop. Get down, get down, get down," said neighbor Bobby Lewis.

He said he saw the whole thing. Instead of stopping, police said the man kept walking, waving his weapon and firing shots, even pointing it at the officer. 

"As he's going through a parking lot...there's neighbors and people in the shopping center and he's continuing to lift his gun multiple times and point it at the officer," said Jodi Silva, with the Houston Police Department.

Silva said the officer, who got out of his patrol car, ordered multiple commands, but the man ignored them.

HPD is still investigating whether or not the man fired shots at the officer, but Lewis insists he did. 

"He fired four shots at the officer and then the officer, I guess, fearing for his life (fired)," he said. "That's when he ran across the street and collapsed and they took him away in the ambulance."

Silva said the officer fired one shot.

The suspect, described only as a Hispanic male, was taken in critical condition to Memorial Hermann Hospital.

The officer, a five-year veteran of the HPD Westside Patrol, was not injured.