Veteran Houston officer shot in neck while pulling the wounded from gunfire
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A veteran Houston police officer's heroic act to pull wounded officers from a hail of gunfire is getting praise from Chief Art Acevedo.
The police chief put into detail the risk that the 54-year-old officer took going into a southeast Houston home where narcotics officers were serving a warrant.
Dennis Tuttle, 59, and Rhogena Nicholas, 58, confronted the officers who breached the front door of the residence Tuesday evening.
Acevedo said the 54-year-old officer, who was working undercover and will not be identified, made the breach before several officers entered. Another officer who entered first was attacked by a pit bull. Tuttle then struck that officer in the shoulder.
Two more officers were wounded in a shootout with the suspects.
Acevedo then said the hero officer was among several who left their cover positions and went in to pull their partners out.
The officer was shot in the neck in the process.
"I had to get in there because I knew my guys were down," the officer later said in a note to Acevedo.
"That just speaks volumes as to what this man... just his courage under fire," Acevedo said of the officer.
The officer is a 32-year veteran of Houston police. He is being treated at Memorial Hermann Hospital in critical condition.
Acevedo added the officer was previously shot in the line of duty in 1992 and 1997. Monday's confrontation marked the third time he was wounded.
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