A Houston girl was shot in her pal’s residence this month by sheriff’s deputies who responded to a report of a break-in and fired repeatedly into the house, in line with an announcement and physique digital camera footage launched by the Harris County Sheriff’s Workplace.
Early on Feb. 3, the lady, Eboni Pouncy, and her pal smashed a window to get inside after forgetting the home key, in line with a assertion launched final week by the civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who’s representing Ms. Pouncy.
The ladies had been startled when, after 2 a.m., the deputies started pounding on the door, in accordance Mr. Crump. Fearing an intruder, Ms. Pouncy picked up her legally registered firearm and, shortly after, was struck by 5 bullets, he mentioned.
Emergency medical employees took Ms. Pouncy to a hospital for remedy, the sheriff’s workplace mentioned. Whereas the character of her accidents was unclear, Mr. Crump mentioned in his assertion that she was recovering.
Based on the Harris County Sheriff’s Workplace, the 2 deputies responded to a report of an intruder at an residence on the town’s east facet at round 2:10 a.m. however discovered nobody inside. Shortly afterward, a resident of a neighboring residence instructed the deputies that somebody had damaged into one other second-floor residence, the sheriff’s workplace mentioned. When deputies went to analyze the break-in, they discovered the entrance window display eliminated, damaged glass and the blinds raised close to the entrance door, the sheriff’s workplace mentioned.
The footage, retrieved from deputies’ body-worn cameras and launched on Saturday, reveals the 2 deputies, who seem like ladies, climbing the residence staircase, knocking on the entrance door after which retreating just a few ft away. One of many deputies says she sees somebody coming and shouts, after which each deputies start firing repeatedly by the glass home windows. Each reload their weapons and proceed to fireside a number of instances.
The sheriff’s workplace is investigating the taking pictures and has positioned each deputies concerned on administrative depart. No prison prices have been filed. The Harris County District Lawyer’s Workplace can be investigating the taking pictures, an ordinary observe when regulation enforcement officers use probably lethal drive.
Neither the sheriff’s workplace nor the district lawyer may very well be instantly reached for touch upon Tuesday night.
Laronda Berry, the resident and Ms. Pouncy’s pal, mentioned in an interview on Friday that she had instructed Ms. Pouncy to interrupt the window and that that they had been inside solely 20 minutes after they heard “loud banging” on the door. “The one crime that was dedicated that day was accomplished by the police,” she mentioned.
Mr. Crump — who for greater than 20 years has been a go-to lawyer for the households of Black individuals killed by regulation enforcement officers — mentioned the episode was harking back to the case of Breonna Taylor, a Black medical employee who was shot and killed by cops in Louisville, Ky., in March 2020 throughout a botched raid on her residence.
In an announcement posted to social media on Monday, he mentioned that the taking pictures “ought to have by no means occurred, and this newly launched physique cam footage is proof of the pointless and extreme drive used in opposition to her.”
The footage, he added, proved that the deputies had “shot first and requested questions later.”
