HOUSTON (Dispatches) – A 29-year-old police officer with three years on the job was shot in the face following a tense pursuit, police in Houston, U.S. state of Texas, announced.
Officer Crystal Sepulveda took one bullet to her face and another to her foot and is expected to survive. The suspect, who police say was armed with a pair of automatic pistols carrying extended magazines, was shot dead, the New York Daily News reported.
Chief Troy Finner said in a press conference that around 2 a.m., Missouri City, Texas, officers spotted a stolen vehicle connected to an aggravated robbery. That triggered a multi-department pursuit that resulted in a firefight in a residential neighborhood where the suspect crashed the car he was driving in front of a home, then ran away, shooting himself in the foot.
Officers engaged the man, an unidentified Black male believed to be between the ages of 25 and 30, and a shootout ensued. The pursuant was shot “multiple times” and brought to a hospital where he died.
In another incident, at least three men were injured in a shooting outside a Chicago church as friends and loved ones were leaving a funeral service, officials said.
At a news conference a church official said the count for those struck or injured could reach five because it’s possible some victims may have used private vehicles to seek medical aid, NBC News reported.
The service was for a gang interventionist, mentioned only by his nickname, who was well known in the Roseland community, said an official of the Universal Community Missionary Baptist Church, where the violence took place.
Chicago police said the known victims, all men ages 20, 25, and 37, were hospitalized in good condition. But police later said one of the three was in serious-to-critical condition, another in fair-to-serious condition, and the third in good-to-serious condition.
Someone in a gray sedan opened fire as the victims stood outside the church, police said. No one was in custody and motive was under investigation.
Pastor Donovan Price, executive director of Chicago-based crisis intervention group Solutions and Resources, said at a news conference that those struck Saturday may be related to the subject of the funeral service.