A video released by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office in Texas of an officer involved shooting Feb. 3, should give every gun owner a little pause should they approach their front door or an open window while armed when things go bump in the night. It is more importantly a good warning to departments across the United States for training in the department of “don’t do this.”

In the video and from other news accounts, on Feb. 3 at around 2:10 a.m., police received a call from a woman who reported someone was inside her apartment. One deputy arrived and with and determined no intruder was inside the apartment and everything was okay. After a second deputy arrived to assist, a woman walked up to the female deputies and told them somebody had broken into another nearby apartment.

The deputies went to investigate the potential break-in, there they saw a front window screen removed, broken glass and the blinds raised near the front door. Here’s the video that shows what played out next.

While it’s genuinely hard to Monday morning quarterback a moment a person is in and the actions they take, even when watching video, this one will surely have many gun owners shaking their heads. The one deputy totally emptied both mags into the apartment, while the other appears to have only emptied one.

How many of us on this website, upon hearing someone beating on our door in the middle of the night, would go check it out unarmed? Not many I assure you. And to think you could just be shot for approaching the door with a gun for protection to check out who is beating at the door of your own home is pretty scary.

While the police did announce themselves, it’s unlikely the words “Sheriff’s Office” was heard or understood inside as it was shouted at the same time she was pounding and the two women inside were in the back of the apartment. Even the words may be hard to comprehend through a door and one commentor suggested on PolicePosts on Instagram, maybe they should’ve yelled “Police,” since that would be easier to understand.

In a short on YouTube’s Survival in the City channel, Massad Ayoob discusses the odds of who it is and what you should or shouldn’t carry if you hear beating on your door in the middle of the night, and says don’t open the door at all and odds are it will be the “local police,” so  definitely don’t open it armed once you confirm that it is police.

There is no evidence to suggest the woman, who was a guest of the renter in the apartment, did anything but approach the door with a gun and was spotted through the open window by one of the deputies, who both began instantly shooting without warning.

A simple, “Police, drop the gun,” might’ve saved everyone a whole lot of trouble. Who knows?

The woman who was shot suffered multiple injuries to her legs and midsection but survived. Of course, she’s hired Ben Crump, the famed civil rights attorney, as her lawyer, which means Harris County is going to pay dearly on this one. Crump doesn’t take a case where there aren’t likely millions in civil litigation fees he can secure.

The two women did break in to the apartment because they had forgotten their key, but there is no law against breaking in to your own home.

As for the deputies, who also are both female, no charges have been filed yet and the case is still under investigation. Don’t think this is the last we will hear of this one…

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46 COMMENTS

  7. Issue cops night sticks and the training to use them. And or a Leather slap.There is no reason to issue them guns. Until they have proven they have sufficient communication and de-escalation skills.

  9. Question: Are cops taught to mag dump in the police academy? If not, is it just an inability to handle the fear of an encounter that results in these incidents? Are they taught that anyone with a gun is a threat, even people inside their own homes? Because this shooting is one of any number we have read about in this site.

  10. F*ing cops. “Global War on Terror” vets suffering flashbacks to Fallujah or some other Middle-Eastern ****hole.

    Whatddya do in this case?? Keep you blinds closed? Then you need to crack the blinds to look outside. Maybe BLM was right. Let’s just defund the police, let everyone get armed, and let God sort it out.

  11. Another thing, the victim suffered multiple hits from a 9mm (what else do cops use than what the bean counters want?) and survives. This is a commercial for NOT carrying a 9mm. Arm yourself with something better, something that will still do some damage after penetrating barriers. .357 sig at a minimum.

    Woman cops. I can just hear them —

    “But … but … .357 magnum hurts my hands!”

    “But … but … I can’t control the recoil!”

    Whimper. Sob. Whine.

    • I remember running into a female deputy at the range who, although she was not a patrol officer, still had to requalify with her .40 Glock. She was having trouble hitting the broad side of a barn because she couldn’t handle the recoil (really???) and was worried about losing her job.

  12. Defund the police. Everyone handle their own business. Just like it use to be. And we were a very free country back then.

  13. Someone coming to the door with a firearm is not grounds to open fire especially when you do not know if anyone is downrange, etc. Frankly some people need to be shot to get a grasp on reality if shooting someone without beeing 110% sure they are legally in the right. Nit so long agao there was a female Dallas PD who shot a man thinking he was in her apartment when she was in his apartment…she is doing time and the family of the deceased is doing well financially at least.
    Time to shift gears…
    https://youtube.com/watch?v=H7Q1y_lKk6M&feature=shared

  15. “Safer with a gun in the home” Not this time (as usual).

    U.S. “un”trained Thug Cops gunned down 1,250 people in 2012 while German police the same year shot just 12 people. In Capitalvania where life is considered cheap and expendable U.S. Cops kill on average 1,200 people a year, it’s called collateral damage.

    German Police get 3 years intensive training in all aspects of police work including de-escalation, emergency medical treatments, knowledge of all gun and civil laws, and they are evaluated psychologically before being hired for police work.

    U.S. Moron Cops sometimes are given as little as 4 weeks training and then told to settle all problems by shooting first and asking questions later. Ther primary instructions are to say “I feared for my life that is why I blasted the hell out him”. If you are warm you are hired as a Cop with sloppy background checks (if any are conducted) into your past history and the psychological evaluations are a joke at best if indeed the Department even has any.

    If you are a past rapist, criminal, bully, psycho, sadist, or suffering from PTSD then being a U.S. Capitalvanian Cop is the job for you. You get all the free ammo you need to shoot people but not thank heavens not any of the training on how to shoot straight.

    • But those are the same cops you wish to give power to decide who can and cannot own a gun.

      You rant against the cops and then finish by licking their boots. Is it any wonder you’re labeled as ‘disturbed’?

    • Did you really just use German cops as an example for anything? I can think of six million reasons why that is a bad idea.

  16. One frantic mag dump for this, ok that was excessive and uncalled for…but a reload and second mag dump was enjoying it.

    • Poor training and panic.

      Poor training: ambling around in front of an open window; changing positions multiple times for no real reason; knocking quietly (once); announcing themselves quietly (once); not continuing to announce their presence as police (loudly and clearly) in the long seconds before the victim appeared; not attempting to communicate (drop the gun! show your hands! etc.), however briefly, with the victim before opening fire; taking exposed positions that put their fire into other apartments and rooms in the complex without regard for the safety of neighbors or the (potentially inside as far as they know) apartment tenant; treating this as a certain armed break-in instead of an investigation with several questions as-yet-unanswered.

      Panic: car alarm; mag dump; poor reload; mag dump again.

      There may be good counter-arguments for some of these, but probably not all of them together.

  17. i for one
    cannot believe
    in this day and age
    that they would put two women leos together
    and give them guns
    it was a recipe for disaster from the word go

  20. “Ben Crump, the famed civil rights attorney” – stupidest thing on TTAG so far in 2024.

    Crump is a lowlife ambulance chasing race baiting POS scumbag.

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