Houston-area SWAT teams search for killer of deputy

HOUSTON (AP) — Authorities in the Houston-area are searching for a man suspected of fatally shooting a sheriff’s deputy in an apparent ambush after pistol-whipping a pizzeria clerk, authorities said Thursday.

Harris County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of an assault on a clerk at a Little Caesars Pizza in the Houston area just after 10 p.m. Wednesday, Chief Deputy Mike Lee said at a news conference.

A customer who came in to pick up a pizza he ordered got upset because the order was incorrect and pistol-whipped the clerk and fled, Lee said.

The clerk provided a description of the customer’s vehicle and its license plate number, which was traced to a location where deputies began searching for the vehicle, Lee said.

A deputy notified others that he had found the vehicle, and was communicating with another deputy when he was apparently ambushed, Lee said. When others arrived, they found the deputy shot multiple times and rushed him to the hospital, where he died, he said.

Lee did not identify the deputy, but said he was a member of an elite task force focused on violent people, and had been with the sheriff’s office for about five years.

“He was very good at his job, very well thought of,” Lee said.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said in a statement that the deputy was 28 years old and that authorities would not rest until the suspect in the shooting is caught.

“None of us are ever prepared for such an untimely death and our members need your prayers and support,” Gonzalez said. “Our thoughts are with his family as they come to terms with this horrible news.”

The deputy had been working 12-hour shifts along with all other sheriff’s department staff to provide security and prevent looting after Hurricane Beryl, according to Lee, the chief deputy.

Authorities believe they have a good idea who the suspect is and SWAT teams have been set up at two locations, Lee said, expressing confidence that he’ll be taken into custody in a “timely manner.”

“If the suspect happens to see this, he needs to do the right thing and turn himself in,” Lee said.