HPD: Suspect in officer's murder in U.S. illegally
HPD: Suspect in officer's murder in U.S. illegally
05:16 PM CDT on Friday, September 22, 2006
From 11 News Staff and Wire Reports
The Houston Police Department said the suspect in the murder of a police officer has confessed to the crime.
HPD
Officer Rodney Johnson
Police also confirmed that the suspect, Juan Leonardo Quintero, 32, was in the country illegally after being deported in 1999.
Quintero is charged with the capital murder of Officer Rodney Johnson, 40, who was shot around 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the 9300 block of Randolph.
Prosecutors on Friday said Quintero, who is being held without bond, pulled a 9 mm handgun from his waistband and shot Johnson. Casings were found in the car and police revealed Friday that the suspect also tried to shoot a tow-truck operator who showed up just after Johnson was shot.
Police also released more details about the shooting. They said that Johnson apparently missed a gun that Quintero had during a pat-down search.
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“Apparently in the course of the pat-down search, the officer did not determine it (the gun) was present,” said HPD investigator Dale Brown. “The officer just missed the weapon in the pat-down search.”
Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt had harsh words for the system that apparently allowed Quintero back into the country.
"If the government would fulfill their responsibility of protecting the border, we would probably not be standing here today," Hurtt said at a press conference Friday.
A woman who claims to be Quintero’s wife and a security guard told 11 News: “I don’t have anything left for him,” she said. “Why he did this I don’t know. To me, a fellow officer died; that is what we should focus on.
“Two lives are gone,” the woman said. “I don’t know how to talk to him. I don’t know what to say to him.”
The woman told 11 News the gun belonged to her, and that she kept it in a locked box next to her bed. She said only she and Quintero knew where the key was.
She also told 11 News that Quintero is in the United States illegally, and that he spends more time in Mexico than Texas. Police confirmed that Friday, saying that Quintero was deported in 1999 after he was charged with indecency with a child.
“Part of the investigation is determining when he did return to this country illegally,” Brown said.
Homicide investigators, Internal Affairs agents and members of the Harris County District Attorney’s office were at the scene of the crime Thursday, trying to piece together what could have gone so tragically wrong.
The incident started like so many other police moments: Quintero was pulled over for an alleged speeding violation for traveling 50 mph in a 30 mph zone. He was taken into custody after Johnson determined he did not have a driver’s license.
“The officer took the suspect into custody. He was apparently handcuffed and placed in the rear of a patrol vehicle,” Hurtt said at a press conference.
Witnesses driving by saw nothing unusual.
“The police officer was leaving the truck and going back to the patrol car, like walking back that way,” said the witness.
Police said Friday that they believe the suspect was able to move his hands under his feet and bring them to the front of his body.
“We believe the officer was shot while sitting inside his vehicle. He was able to push the emergency button,” said Chief Hurtt.
A bullet grazed the back of Officer Johnson’s head. Then he turned, and he was shot in the face three times, according to investigators.
Quintero was clearly agitated and thrashing around in the back of the car as he was taken into custody Thursday. Police took his clothing as evidence, and he was dressed in a paper jumper.
News of Officer Johnson’s death came out around 8 p.m.
As word got out, Houston’s leaders arrived at Ben Taub Hospital: Hurtt, Mayor Bill White and City Councilman Adrian Garcia, a former HPD officer.
Johnson was born in Houston but graduated from high school in Oakland, Calif., in 1984, according to a biography kept by the Houston Police Officers’ Union. He then served in the U.S. Army as a military police officer until being honorably discharged in 1990.
Johnson went to work as a corrections officer for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and then as a jail attendant. He graduated from the Houston police academy in 1994.
As a member of the department’s Southeast Gang Task Force, Johnson earned two Lifesaving Awards and one Medal of Valor from the state of Texas.
According to HPD, he rescued a physically challenged driver trapped in rising floodwaters in January 1998.
That same year he rescued mentally challenged people trapped inside of a burning house, HPD said.
Johnson, who was 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighed nearly 300 pounds, served on the officers’ union board of directors.
“He was big and he was intimidating-looking, but he was as gentle as a baby bear,” said Hans Marticiuc, union president.
Officer Johnson is survived by his wife, HPD Officer Joslyn Johnson, and their five children, ages 14 to 19.
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