HPD/X
HPD Assistant Chief Christy Smith (center) speaks about a shooting involving an officer on Jan. 11, 2026.
Houston Police Department officers struck people with gunfire during two separate incidents Sunday — with one of them dying — marking the first two shootings in the city this year involving police. Last year, HPD officers were involved in 28 shootings, resulting in 12 deaths.
Sunday’s fatal shooting took place at about 2:30 p.m. near a church in the 4800 block of Wayne Street in Houston’s Fifth Ward neighborhood. HPD Assistant Chief James Skelton, citing the findings of a preliminary investigation, said a Black man raised a weapon at police and failed to follow verbal commands to drop the weapon.
“As the officers were continuing to give him verbal commands to drop the weapon, the suspect raised his weapon and our officers unfortunately had to discharge their weapon,” Skelton said during a news conference. “Once the suspect was down, officers attended to our descendant and noticed that there was no further measures they could do. So unfortunately, the suspect died.”
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Earlier Sunday, at about 1:40 a.m. in the 4700 block of Tidwell Road in north Houston, someone else was shot by an HPD officer during a traffic stop, according to HPD Assistant Chief Christy Smith. She said the person who was shot, whose identity has not been released, was transported to a local hospital in critical condition.
“It was determined that the driver had a felony warrant,” Smith said. “As officers attempted to take the suspect in[to] custody, a struggle ensued. One officer tased the suspect. The suspect continued to resist, resulting in one officer discharging his firearm.”
An HPD spokesperson confirmed to Houston Public Media on Monday that the incidents marked the first two officer-involved shootings recorded by the department this year. The last such incident was on Dec. 26, 2025, according to HPD data.
HPD officers were involved in 28 shooting incidents during 2025, the data show. That is the same number of incidents as 2024 and nine more than in 2023.
During the last two decades, the highest number of shootings involving Houston police occurred in 2009, when there were 49 shootings resulting in 16 deaths, with one of those fatalities being an officer. In 2015, a total of 32 shooting incidents were recorded and 12 of those people died.
Provided/HPD
A graph showing the number of officer-involved shooting incidences from 2015 to 2025.
In 2025, 12 people were killed by gunfire from an HPD officer, 11 more were wounded and six were either not wounded or their injuries were not recorded, according to available HPD data. In 2024, 13 people were fatally shot by officers, 10 were wounded and seven were either not wounded or their injuries were not recorded.
According to HPD’s data, 25 of the 28 people shot by HPD officers last year were men. The ages of the people shot ranged from 15 to 64, with the average age being approximately 31.