HOUSTON – A chase suspect was killed during a shootout with deputies Thursday in Chambers County, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
Harris County Pct. 3 constable deputies were first called to a scene in the 8500 block of Nemard Lane around 11 a.m.
Police said the call was about a 16-year-old girl who ran away and was staying at the home with Dexter Attaway in northeast Harris County, according to the sheriff.
Officials said as deputies tried to remove the 16-year-old girl from the home when Attaway, who was inside, began shooting at the deputy constables. Officials said Attaway barricaded himself inside with home with the teen and one deputy constable who got trapped inside.
“There was at least two deputy constable on the scene. Obviously in the rush of things, one (deputy) ended up being trapped inside the home,” Gonzalez said.
The sheriff said no officers were injured in the shooting, but did state that a deputy constable’s taser was struck by a bullet.
Gonzalez said after the barricading incident, the suspect then fled and carjacked a driver near the scene. He said a chase began and the suspect opened fire at the officers during the pursuit. Gonzalez said the chase ended in Chambers County on the feeder road near I-10 after the suspect crashed but continued to shoot. During the shootout, the suspect sustained a gunshot wound where he was pronounced dead, the sheriff said.
Life Flight was called to for a deputy who suffered minor injuries from the crash, Gonzalez said. Law enforcement officers also suffered minor injuries in the incident, officials said.
“He was obviously in a very dangerous state with the actions he not only took at the scene but the committing an aggravated robbery of carjacking of a vehicle of a person and then firing at deputies. This could have been a lot worse with innocent people dead,” Gonzalez said.
Both the homeowner of where the incident first unfolded and Attaway’s girlfriend, disputed law enforcement’s version of events.
“I think they came in here with an intent,” Laura Hill, Attaway’s girlfriend, said Friday
“What intent?” KPRC2 reporter, Joel Eisenbaum, asked.
“An intent to take him out,” Hill said.
Hill was not in the home at the time, but the homeowner, who asked to not be identified, said he was in the home at the time of the shooting and Attaway never fired at the deputies.
“I know because I was in my kitchen, and they came in blasting, they didn’t give him any chance,” the homeowner said.
Officials said the deputy constable and the teen were safely removed from the home.
Friday, the Harris County Precinct 3 Constable’s Office said the incident was under internal affairs review as a matter of standard operating procedure.
KPRC 2 later learned that Attaway was out on six felony bonds.