Reserve deputy accused of firing gun at CenterPoint Energy workers

HOUSTON – A reserve deputy constable is accused of firing his gun, waving his badge and threatening CenterPoint Energy workers in his neighborhood. One of those workers says he was forced to beg for his life.

"I said 'Please don't kill me.  I am good man,'" Dionne Hernandez said.

He described the moment he was forced to beg for his life when a reserve deputy constable pointed his gun at the contract worker after firing one shot into the ground.

Hernandez thought he was moments away from losing his life after simply trimming trees away from power lines with his work crew in a northwest Houston neighborhood.

It's on Knotty Wood Drive near Hollister Road and Tidwell.

"'I am going to the cemetery,' I say in my mind," said Dionne.

HPD investigators say Darial Gass, a reserve deputy constable with the Harris County Precinct 6 Constable's Office, fired after coming out of the front door of his home.

He had called 9-1-1 to report suspicious people in his backyard. The tree trimming crew says they had been there for 30 minutes, their truck was parked outside the home, and they'd been in the neighborhood for about eight hours.

"The officer was able to go to there, the man was still outside, he detained him, took the weapon. And that's when he discovered he was a Precinct 6 reserve deputy," said HPD Officer Shawn Sylvester.

The Harris County District Attorney's Office eventually decided to charge Gass with deadly conduct. Police arrested him and took him to jail to be processed.

Hernandez is just thankful to be alive.

A Precinct 6 spokesperson also tells us that Gass will not serve as a peace officer in any capacity while the investigation into the shooting is underway.


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