HOUSTON – Deputies interrupted a pawn shop holdup, opening fire on two suspected robbers outside a busy shopping center in northeast Harris County, Local 2 Investigates reported Friday.
A holdup alarm was triggered around 3 p.m. Friday at the E Z Pawn branch on Uvalde at Wallisville.
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"When I looked, I turned back, the guns in my face, and the guy's telling us to get on the ground. I took my hand and pushed the gun out of my face," said a witness.
He ran outside to his sister. She said, "He come running out. 'We need to go. We need to call the cops. They're robbing the store.'"
Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia said deputies arrived one or two minutes later.
Sheriff's investigators said the three bandits emerged from the pawn shop, one of them raising a gun as deputies surrounded them.
They piled into a small, white getaway car and investigators said the driver then backed up and rammed a parked car in the lot.
More deputies surrounded them with guns drawn, and then investigators said the robber behind the wheel sped toward one of the patrol cars, pinning a deputy's leg between their car and a patrol car.
Four deputies then opened fire on the car, according to sheriff's office spokesman Thomas Gilliland. Three were sheriff's deputies and one was a Harris County Precinct 3 deputy constable.
"A weapon was displayed. At that point, our deputies that had responded to the calls believed that their lives were in danger, and took appropriate action," Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia said.
One suspected robber was shot in the upper torso, he said, while the other was shot in the arm. The bullet exited his elbow.
Both were taken to separate hospitals with injuries described as non-life-threatening.
The third suspected robber bolted from the getaway car and was captured in a neighboring parking lot.
Crime scene markers were lined up across the parking lot between the vehicles involved and other parked cars.
Gilliland said the robbers' gun was also found outside the car after all three were arrested. It remained on the ground with its own evidence marker.
Before the getaway car rammed into a parked car and the deputies started firing, Gilliland said a dye pack exploded inside the bag of loot taken from the pawn shop.
Garcia did not reveal how many shots were fired by the four deputies, saying it was still under investigation.
The deputy who was pinned between the cars was also taken to the hospital with injuries to his leg. Garcia said that deputy was released from the hospital within a couple hours of the crime.
Garcia pointed out that his department has lost 150 patrol deputies due to budget cuts, but he said the county's neighborhoods are still protected by law officers who can respond quickly.
The uninjured suspect was taken in handcuffs to sheriff's detective bureau offices on Lockwood for questioning, along with several witnesses from the scene of the crime.
No names were released.