Video: Houston Police Stop Armed Man who Attacked Car with Flagpole

By Matt deGrood

Source Houston Chronicle

Houston police released camera footage Monday of a shooting last month in which authorities say a man in northwest Houston man hit a woman's car with a flagpole and approached an officer with a knife before that officer shot and killed him.

Police allege the man, Alfredo Gonzalez-Garza, walked toward an officer with a knife and the officer, identified as I. Garcia, asked him to stop, before shooting Gonzalez-Garza several times.

A spokesperson for the police department declined to release additional information about the shooting, beyond what authorities provided in a series of videos.

Gonzalez-Garza was pronounced dead at 7:55 a.m. Oct. 25. His cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Harris County medical examiner's office.

A woman had called the Houston Police Department earlier that morning to report she had been driving in the 7700 block of Long Point Road when a man struck her vehicle with a flag pole, cracking her windshield.

Several callers said a homeless man had been aggressively confronting drivers as their vehicles passed through the area, near a McDonald's.

Garcia responded to the woman's call and found Gonzalez-Garza on the corner of Long Point and Wirt roads.

Garcia didn't activate his body camera until he was performing first aid on Gonzalez-Garza, according to the department. But a series of cameras along the stretch of roadway capture the moments before and after the shooting.

In the videos, a Houston police vehicle arrived in a parking lot and Garcia got out of the car.

The officer then confronted the man, who pulled out a knife and walked toward police, authorities allege. Garcia pulled his gun and walked backward while asking the man to drop the knife.

The man then turned around and walked south on Wirt Road, grabbing the flagpole, while the officer followed behind.

Police allege Gonzalez-Garza then quickly turned around and walked toward Garcia with the knife and the officer fired at him. The videos were taken too far away to see any objects other than the flagpole.

The department's special investigations unit, the internal affairs division and the Harris County District Attorney's Office are handling the investigation into the shooting.

Assistant Police Chief Wyatt Martin said it was still early in the investigation.

Houston TV station ABC13 reported that day that one bullet went through a window at a nearby fast food restaurant, causing several employees and customers to rush from the building.

Video released Monday shows a busy street, with several cars passing as the officer followed after Gonzalez-Garza and later shot him.

___

Visit the Houston Chronicle at www.chron.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.