Harris County sheriff's deputies said the shooting happened in the 13000 block of Rosetta Drive in Cypress at about 12:40 a.m.
A family asked the officer, who is their next-door neighbor, for help with a family disturbance, detectives said.
The officer, identified as Raul Abdala, went to the family's home and found 30-year-old Chad Nash armed with a knife in the front yard, investigators said. Deputies said Nash started to walk toward the officer, and Abdala told him to drop the knife. Nash did not drop the knife and continued to move toward the officer, causing the officer to shoot out of fear for his safety, investigators said.
Nash was taken to Northwest Cypress Hospital, where he died. "We would like to make it clear that there was no home invasion," Nash's family wrote in a statement. "There was a family altercation that ended tragically for everyone involved. It is a difficult time for both families, and we ask that you allow us to grieve privately and in the company of our loved ones."
Credit: AIR 11 A fire at Enterprise Products in Mont Belvieu was burning out of control more than an hour after witnesses heard multiple explosions.
by Michelle Homer / khou.com khou.com Posted on February 8, 2011 at 1:05 PM Updated today at 1:39 PM
MONT BELVIEU, Texas – Several explosions at a Mont Belvieu plant were followed by flames that could be seen from miles around. The explosions happened at Enterprise Products at 135 Sun Oil Road around 12:25 p.m.
Witnesses reported seeing workers fleeing from the Chambers County plant. Other workers were being told to stay inside. The company hasn't released any details about injuries. An employee, who didn't want to be identified, said at least one contractor has not been accounted for.
The employee said the explosion happened in a subsection of the plant. Chambers County officials say there's no known threat to the public at this time.
They have not called for evacuations. State Highway 146 is closed near the plant.
The fire was still burning out of control nearly an hour after it began. The flames could be seen 25 miles away in Houston.
A Houston caller named Pat said she was talking by phone to a relative inside the plant when the first set of explosions happened. There were three more explosions while they were still on the phone. "Anywhere from eight to 11 explosions," according to Pat.
(CNN) -- Houston's mayor and police department were on the defensive Friday, two days after graphic video came out showing several police repeatedly kicking and beating a 15-year-old burglary suspect as he lay on the ground. An internal police investigation of the incident last March led to the firing of seven police officers, said spokesman John Cannon of the Houston police department.
Two successfully appealed and returned to their jobs, said Houston NAACP President D.Z. Cofield.
Five other officers were disciplined in other ways, Cannon said. And a Harris County grand jury indicted four of the officers this summer, based in part on the video. Harris County District Attorney Patricia Lykos opposed the video becoming public and felt doing so might prejudice potential jurors and force the indicted officers' trials to be moved out of the county.
Quanell X, a local activist, got hold of the surveillance tape showing the scene outside a storage facility and gave it to the media. He said he had every right to obtain the footage and make it public.
"I will show my people what they deserve to see, and let the public see what you don't want them to see," Quanell X said. Mayor Annise Parker said the police leadership and city acted properly.
"I resent any implication that we were trying to hide the tape," she said. After viewing the footage, Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland Jr. fired the seven officers and a grand jury called for misdemeanor charges against four of them in June.
Lykos told reporters Thursday there was not sufficient evidence to pursue more serious charges, such as aggravated assault. "Without revealing what was presented to the grand jury, in order to have aggravated assault you have to have serious bodily injury or impairment or use of a deadly weapon," she said. "None of that was apparent in this case."
The tape, first shown Wednesday on CNN affiliate WTRK, shows the 15-year-old boy -- being chased by police and falling to the ground after being upended by a moving police car. He then falls face first and places his hands on the ground.
A disciplinary letter from McClelland, dated June 23 and posted online less than two weeks later by CNN affiliate HTRK, says that the boy had his hands behind his head and neck area, in an obvious position of surrender.
Then, the letter adds and the tape shows, Officer Raad Hassan "then ran toward (the boy) and kicked him a total of 15 times," then later kicked him more times in the groin area even after he "was handcuffed and no longer a threat."
