A retired police officer has been hospitalized with multiple gunshot wounds after he chased down a suspected burglar in his truck, hopped out, and got into a fistfight with the man, and then in a shootout.
Patches Mohhamad told KTRK-TV that she saw an armed intruder in her home in the Highland Crossing neighborhood of the city of Highlands from her surveillance video cameras, but she was not in the home at the time.
“I almost passed out,” she said. “I’ll tell you the truth. It’s like looking at a movie. I can’t believe this man is standing in my kitchen. In my living room.”
She said that the man appeared to run off after her alarms went off in the home.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said that the suspected intruder was then confronted by a retired Baytown police officer who also lived in the neighborhood and had seen him allegedly break into homes.
The 64-year-old used his white Chevy Suburban to chase down the man, who was on foot, and then hopped out of his truck and confronted him.
An eyewitness who didn’t want to be identified told KTRK that he saw the two men fighting.
“I was going home, and I saw these guys rolling around, holding each other’s shirt, and I said, ‘Man, that didn’t look right,'” the witness explained. “So I reached down to grab my phone to call 911 and heard three gunshots.”
He says that one of the gunshots struck his vehicle just inches from where he was sitting so he ran out to help the retired officer hold down the suspect, all the while calling 911.
“The guy had a gun, and I picked it up and put it in my truck and saved it for when police got there,” the witness said.
He said the retired officer had been wounded in the ear.
“He was pouring blood, so I got into my truck, got paper towels, and gave it to him,” he said. “There was so much blood.”
Both the retired officer and the suspect were hospitalized over their numerous gunshot wounds. Investigators believe the suspect broke into at least two homes in the neighborhood.
KTRK said the family of the officer told them that he would be OK. His daughter said that he would always look after his neighborhood.
Mohhamad said she was praying for the man and his family.
