HOUSTON – A chase on Houston’s southside late Wednesday night ended with the driver being shot by a police officer.
According to HPD Asst. Chief A. Rodriguez, it all started sometime after 11:15 p.m., officers tried pulling over a driver in a stolen Buick SUV on Reed and 288, but the driver kept going.
A brief chase ensued until the unidentified driver crashed near Bacon and Tierwester. Asst. Chief Rodriguez said the driver then ran into an apartment complex nearby where he “brandished a weapon.”
He did not disclose what kind of weapon.
MORE STORIES INVOLVING POLICE CHASES
After the weapon was brandished, Asst. Chief Rodriguez said the officer told the man to put it down, but he did not comply, so the officer shot him. He was then rushed to a hospital in serious condition, and a weapon was recovered.
The officer has only been identified as a 4-year veteran with HPD.
The family of the man who was shot, 37-year-old Tony Underwood, is disputing HPD’s account of what happened, alleging he didn’t have a gun, only a water bottle.
“I don’t think my brother was no threat last night. I don’t think he brandished no gun. Now if you brandished a gun… why yall ain’t shoot him in the side or the shoulder, anything like that. Why yall shot him directly in his back. Come on now what kind of aim is that,” said Tom Underwood, who is Tony Underwood’s brother.
“He had a water bottle, he had his hands up in the air, you can’t mistake it as a gun. If they found a gun they didn’t get it off him. I’m 100 percent sure of that,” said Abc Hornsby, Tony Underwood’s cousin.
KPRC 2 reached out to HPD to ask about the family’s account of Underwood having a water bottle instead of a gun. Police maintain it was a gun and there was a threat.
At last check, Underwood is in critical condition at Ben Taub Hospital. No one else was hurt.
An internal investigation, per HPD protocol, is also being conducted, and body camera footage should be released within 30 days.