Harris County Sheriff's Office investigates how loaded gun made its way inside jail

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- Questions are being raised after a convicted murderer was caught with a loaded gun inside the Harris County Jail on Tuesday morning.

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The Harris County Sheriff's Office said jailers at the 1200 Baker Street facility discovered the gun hidden inside a seat cushion on inmate Tyrone King's wheelchair after getting an anonymous tip.

"It's something that amazes and astounds me and ought to make us go, 'Come on now,'" legal analyst Brian Wice said.

King was serving time in prison for a 1995 murder conviction but was later paroled. He was arrested and booked into jail on Oct. 23 for violating his parole terms.

It's unclear how King obtained the gun.

"In four-and-half decades doing what I've done as a criminal defense attorney, this is an outlier. It's a black swan. I've never heard of anything quite like this," Wice said.

A former jailer told Eyewitness News that most inmates' wheelchairs are jail-issued and that inmates need special permission to have personal ones like King's.

Wheelchairs are usually taken apart and searched before being allowed into the jail, but it's unclear if that happened in this case.

"Obviously, there's something radically wrong with the quality control process at the Harris County Jail," Wice said.

The sheriff's office hasn't said whether it believes King smuggled the gun in at the time of his booking or if someone else smuggled it in for him.

"I'm gonna think that the trail doesn't begin and end with this inmate. I think that somebody had to have a hand in this, and whether it's a civilian, whether it's a jailer, whether it's the tooth fairy, nobody knows at this point," Wice said.

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