Texas man watching neighbor’s home fatally shot by deputy, authorities say

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

A Texas man who was keeping watch over a home that had been previously burglarized was fatally shot after confronting a plain-clothes deputy early Wednesday, authorities said.

The Harris County deputy was part of a Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force that was attempting to arrest a man on a capital murder charge in Missouri City, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The deputy was sitting in an unmarked vehicle around 6 a.m. when a neighbor walked up and tapped on the window, Harris County Sheriff’s Office Chief Tim Navarre told the newspaper.

The neighbor used his cellphone as a flashlight to look into the vehicle, KTRK reported. When the deputy rolled down his window, the man raised what appeared to be a pistol but was actually a BB gun, Navarre told the Chronicle.

According to Navarre, the deputy pulled his gun and exchanged words with the man. It is not clear what was said, the Chronicle reported.

At some point, the neighbor lowered his flashlight and allegedly raised the BB gun, the newspaper reported. The deputy fired two shots and struck the man with one of them, KTRK reported.

The man ran to his car, which was parked in a nearby driveway, and died at the scene, the Chronicle reported.

The man deputies sought in the murder was not found in Missouri City but later turned himself to police in the Dallas suburb of Mesquite, the newspaper reported.

The deputy was not injured, KTRK reported.

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