Officers barricade themselves inside patrol car as bullets fly in SE Houston

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Police say two officers are lucky they were not hurt after several shots were fired as they were on patrol on the southeast side -- so many shots they were too numerous to count.

Houston Police officials say there were two officers in the patrol car assigned to a tactical unit.

Those officers were on patrol driving down Noel Street, and as they turned onto Clover Street, they heard several rounds of gunshots, then a pause in the firing, then even more bullets.

ABC13 reporter Jeff Ehling reports from the scene:

Police say the second round of bullets were coming toward the direction of the officers' car.

The officers heard numerous shots all around them, with bullets hitting the pavement and one of those bullets hit the officers' car on the passenger side window.

"Thankfully our officer, who was the passenger in that vehicle was not struck, even though there is a hole through the windshield, those officers immediately took cover in the vehicle," says HPD's John Cannon.

Police then started searching for the people who pulled the trigger. Officers found another car that had bullet holes in it, and have detained the man in that vehicle as well as a second person who was also in the area.

Police do not know if those two men were firing at each other or at the officers.