HOUSTON—Police stormed a Houston home in a raid that left five undercover narcotics officers injured in part after receiving a call from a woman who said her daughter had been doing drugs there.
The officers were serving a search warrant at the house on Jan. 28, when a gunbattle ensued and two suspects were killed.
5 Police Officers Injured in Shooting at Suspected Houston Drug House.
Suspects: Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas.
Four of the officers were shot and a fifth suffered a knee injury. #houstonshooting https://t.co/3oMuz4wKIK— Shomari Stone (@shomaristone) January 30, 2019
Police Chief Art Acevedo said Thursday that following the woman’s call, police sent a confidential informant to the house. That informant purchased heroin there the day before the search warrant was served.
Acevedo said small amounts of marijuana and cocaine and several guns were found in the home following the shootout.
Four of the officers were shot and a fifth suffered a knee injury.
Acevedo says three of the officers remain hospitalized Thursday.
One of four officers shot was a “tough as nails” supervisor who has been struck by gunfire two other times in his career, Acevedo said.
“That officer—who is actually the officer that breached the door … immediately knew that … his partners were down and he made entry. When he made entry, he himself got shot,” Acevedo said Tuesday.
Acevedo said the names of the injured officers are not being released because they work undercover.
He described the supervisor as a “strong ox” and “big teddy bear.”
“The only thing bigger than his body, in terms of his stature, is his courage,” Acevedo said. “I think God had to give him that big body to be able to contain his courage because the man’s got some tremendous courage.”
The supervisor told another officer in the hospital that he didn’t hesitate when he knew his colleagues had been hit.
“He just passed a note to one of our officers that said: ‘I had to get in there because I knew my guys were down,’” Acevedo said Tuesday.
Acevedo said the supervisor had also been shot in 1992 and 1997. Acevedo didn’t provide details of the other shootings.
