Suspect charged in shooting death of Houston-area deputy

HOUSTON (AP) — A suspect was arrested and charged with the fatal shooting of a Houston-area sheriff’s deputy while police were conducting a manhunt following an assault at a pizzeria, authorities said.

Deputy Fernando Esqueda, 28, was killed early Thursday morning by a suspect who allegedly pistol-whipped a pizzeria clerk hours earlier, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.

Ronald Palmer Jr. was arrested around 7 p.m. Thursday after a manhunt during which Esqueda was killed, Gonzalez said during a news conference Thursday night.

Palmer was charged with aggravated assault against the Little Caesars Pizza employee. Gonzalez said at the news conference that he was not charged with Esqueda’s death, but a social media post by Gonzalez later said Palmer had been charged with capital murder.

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. 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, Harris County Chief Deputy Mike 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.

Esqueda located the vehicle around 12 a.m. Thursday, Gonzalez said. Officers found Esqueda shot multiple times and rushed him to a hospital.

“We don’t know exactly what transpired at that point. Again, we’re still trying to put the pieces together,” Gonzalez said. “But at that point, it appears he was ambushed. He sustained serious gunfire and was subsequently pronounced deceased at the hospital upon arrival.”

Esqueda was “very well thought of” as a member of an elite task force focused on violent people and had been with the sheriff’s office for about five years, Lee said.

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, Lee said.