HOUSTON (AP) - One woman was fatally shot and three deputies were wounded in a shooting early Sunday outside a nightclub in Houston, officials said.
The three deputies were working an extra job when they responded to the shooting during a fight in the parking lot of the club after it had closed, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said at a news conference. The deputies went to hospitals for treatment and were expected to survive - including one deputy who was taken in for surgery.
Harris County includes Houston. The city’s Executive Assistant Police Chief Troy Finner told reporters that the woman who died was a civilian who was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.
The suspected shooter sought treatment for a gunshot wound at a hospital in Sugarland, Finner said. He was taken into custody. Sugarland is about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southwest of Houston.
“I don’t know what led him to shoot into a crowd with police officers and other citizens,” Finner said. “The investigation is still at the preliminary point.”
The shooting comes less than a day after Harris County Sgt. Bruce Watson was killed in a crash while driving his patrol motorcycle. Watson, a 20-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, was on his way home after leading a funeral procession Saturday when he was involved in a collision in Pearland, news outlets reported. He later died at a hospital. Watson’s wife is a Houston police officer.
Sunday morning’s shooting was a “very scary moment at the heels of what we went through just last night,” Gonzalez said at the news conference.
“It’s been a tragic night all around,” the sheriff said.
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