Houston police officer involved in fatal shooting, family demands transparency
HOUSTON - Family members of a man who was shot to death by a Houston police officer earlier this month in North Houston say they want answers.
According to the Houston Police Department, two female HPD officers were patrolling near the North Freeway and Werner Street. The two officers saw two men standing in front of a gas station and one man ended up being shot and killed by one of the officers.
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"Right now, we don't have any closure or anything as to what happened. We're still waiting for answers. No one has reached out to us from homicide. I had to call myself and that's how I found out. I called the Medical Examiner's Office myself after trying to call hospitals. I called HPD, and they were like no we don't have him in the system, we don't have him," explains Maribel Madrano, whose brother was shot to death.
It was August 7 when Houston police investigators say 42-year-old Edmundo Meza was outside the store with another man.
"At 9:37 p.m., our officers riding North Patrol happened to come to this area, which is known as one of our high crime areas, different types of criminal activity, that does occur here in this area, so they were just patrolling the area," explains Assistant Chief K. Seafous, who says the two officers discovered Meza had an outstanding warrant and a gun in his waistband as they tried to arrest him.
"Based on what I witnessed from inside the store, what was shown to me on the video, this was a complete over reaction on behalf of the HPD officer. You see this gentleman get into a verbal disagreement with the officer, but he never grabbed the gun, he never pulled the gun out," says Community Activist Quanell X.
"I have a lot of questions concerning what is supposed to have happened," Madrano adds.
In an August 8 news release, the officer who shot Meza is listed as Jillian McGowan. An officer, J. McGowan, shot and killed an unarmed man in 2012, but she was cleared of wrongdoing. We do not have confirmation from police that this is the same person.
"It's been very hard. We were very close to my brother. This is his son," Madrano says through tears, pointing to her nephew standing next to her with his father's photo in his hands.
Loved ones say they hope HPD releases the video of the shooting soon so they can see for themselves what happened.
"I am trying to prepare myself for that. As much as I don't want to see that, it's something that has to be done," says the grieving sister.
HPD is expected to release the officers' body cam video within the next couple of weeks.