A man has been arrested after a deadly shooting in a southwest Houston neighborhood sparked an hourslong SWAT standoff.
Houston police said a 13-year-old boy with autism was alone with the suspect inside the home where the standoff unfolded on Tuesday.
The standoff ended just before 11 p.m., nearly 10 hours after a deadly shooting at the home in the 4200 block Knotty Oaks Trail, not far from Madison High School.
Police said the suspect and the 13-year-old are related — so HPD officers weren’t worried about the boy’s safety. However, SWAT negotiators were worried the child might be too afraid to come out and trust police.
Thankfully, he eventually did come out, and there was a huge sigh of relief from officers.
The standoff went on for several more hours after that.
By the time HPD got a search warrant to go into the home, it was after 10:30 p.m.
The commander said officers hadn’t been able to communicate with the man accused of barricading himself. When SWAT finally went inside, officials said the suspect was just “standing there.”
UPDATE: Suspect in custody. Briefing will be forthcoming with SWAT commander. #HouNews https://t.co/CwM3UwIF9Z
— Houston Police (@houstonpolice) November 23, 2022
“We did leverage family members and anyone who we thought might get through to him. We know that a lot of times, we have people who are afraid — whether it’s the circumstances that they’re in or fear of police, whatever it is — so, we try to overcome those barriers,” Commander Megan Howard said. “And sometimes, family members are able to help us through that.”
In the backyard, police found a man in his 20s dead with a gunshot wound. It’s not clear if the suspect at the center of the standoff will be charged with murder, or if the shooting was in self defense.
Police took the suspect downtown and spent the night interviewing him.
Investigators aren’t sure how the situation escalated from the beginning. The initial call simply said there was an argument happening between two men and guns were involved.