FULL VIDEO: Houston police provide update following SWAT standoff

Good evening, I'm Lieutenant Pulido. I'm here with Chief Diaz, Chief Colley, SWAT Captain Campbell, SWAT Lieutenant Medina, and Dr. Schultz. We're here at the 4400 block of North Shepard. At around 4.20 p.m. this evening, or this afternoon, our North Patrol officers received a call of a cutting in progress. When officers arrived on scene, they found one victim with a stab wound on the back. Our officers then started gathering information. That's when we found out that the suspect and victim are brothers. They had an argument, and that argument led to the stabbing. When officers arrived, they went to go find the suspect in his apartment. He barricaded himself in the apartment. He refused to come out. Officers were giving him verbal commands. He still refused to come out. We found out that the father of the victim and the suspect was also inside. He's disabled, so he was not able to come out of his own free will. At one point, our officers heard what sounded like a gunshot. So our officers set up a perimeter, backed off, and waited for our SWAT to make the scene. And a few seconds later, they saw smoke. A fire began. So our patrol support team was also on scene, and they decided to breach the door to see if they could do anything. When they breached the door, they saw flames, and we backed off. SWAT arrived, HFD arrived. They conducted a plan. HFD started putting out the fire, and our SWAT team donned the HFD equipment so they could go in there and try to rescue everybody. Unfortunately, whenever our SWAT went in there, they found both the father and suspect deceased. The victim is in stable condition, and he was transported to a local area hospital, and there are no further threats to the community at this point. How extensive was the other apartment's damage? Yes, sir. So SWAT, patrol, and our PSTA teams cleared up the entire apartment complex. There are a few apartments that were burnt severely. Any idea, like, how many were affected? I'm not sure. Do you guys know anything about that? That's just two? Okay, that's what we've heard. How did the stabbing victim, he ran out, or how did he get help? So officers arrived about a couple minutes later, maybe two minutes, and they found the victim outside in the parking lot, and he flagged them down. And you believe he's in stable condition? Yes, sir. And the dad and the suspect? Yeah, unfortunately, they're both deceased. From the fire? So right now, we are unsure of that information, but arson and homicide are out here, and they're gonna investigate. And then, have there been other calls for search for the suspect? So the suspect is 20 years old. The victim is 22, and the father is 59 years old. And you both flagged them both? Yeah. 59. So as far as I know, no, but I don't have that information right now. Was there a fire? No, not at this point. I believe two. I mean, this was an awful thing to happen, but it could have been a lot worse. Yes, yes, but unfortunately, you know, our patrol, SWAT, and PST cleared everything and made sure everyone was safe from the apartment complex. And he set his own apartment on fire? Yes, that's what we believe happened. Yeah, so I believe the mom, the two brothers, and the father lived there. The mom is on scene, but she wasn't in the house, in the apartment complex. So we are unsure at this point right now, but once homicide and arson are able to go inside to follow up and see if they could locate a firearm, then we'll know for sure. We could not determine what the original argument was about. The mother didn't hear the argument. The brothers in the hospital, they got as much information as they could from him, but he was, you know, being treated by doctors. From the information, I was told he's stable right now. And what was it that prompted SWAT to go ahead and kind of move in? Well, for the safety of everyone, we want to try to save lives. That's our primary objective. And we knew the suspect was in there and his father was in there. So they quickly took action and tried to make entry as quickly as possible. Because of the fire? Yes. Sir, and how much longer for the residents that are standing behind me waiting to? So from the information I got, HFD told us that it's going to be about two hours to clear the fires so they won't simmer up and another fire won't start. So it might be a minute. The victim? Yes. Yes, he knows. The mother knows who. I'll try to. Buenas noches. Hoy, como a las 4.20 de la tarde, tuvimos una llamada de una pelea dentro de dos hermanos de un apartamento. A ese tiempo, uno de los hermanos puñaló al otro hermano con un cuchillo adentro de la casa. Ese hermano salió corriendo con su madre. En esos entonces le llamaron al 911. Nosotros respondimos. A ese muchacho se lo llevaron a un hospital localmente y ahorita está en condición estable. Entonces, el otro muchacho que navajó el hermano, estaba el padre ahí. El padre y yo tenemos entendidos que tenía un problema donde no se podía mover y empezaron nuestros reglamentos. Llegaron el PST, el SWAT team a la área. Llegaron los bomberos iguales. En esos entonces hicimos un plan para llegar a tocar a la puerta. Entonces, los patrulleros oyeron dos, lo que piensan ellos eran dos balazos dentro del hogar. En esos entonces hicimos otro plan para romper la puerta, para verificar que todos adentro de la casa estaban listos y estaban de buena salud. Como en 10 segundos, desde ese plan empezar, empezó el incendio adentro de la casa. Los bomberos les emprestaron al SWAT team lo típico, los uniformes que usan los bomberos, y entraron, rompimos la puerta, pero en ese entonces estaba la casa ya envuelta con llamas de la lumbre. En esos entonces tratamos de usar un drone para entrar al hogar para ver si estaba alguien necesitando ayuda. En esos entonces, las llamas estaban muy grandes, entraron los bomberos y apagaron la lumbre. Ahorita, en estos momentos, no sabemos en qué condiciones está el papá, de qué murió, a lo mejor por la lumbre o también por las dos, oímos los dos tiros que se oyeron adentro del hogar. No lo sabemos ahorita porque hay tanto, pues el apartamento se destruye con el agua, con la lumbre, eso ahorita no tenemos la información de eso. En cuanto a los bomberos, los bomberos que hacen las investigaciones de la lumbre aclaren todo, entonces entra el departamento policial de los homicidios para ver si acaso de qué murieron las dos personas. Eran hispanos, sí, claro. Mi papá tenía como 59 años y el otro muchacho que empezó hoy con las apuñaladas tenía como 20 años. We don't know at this time because the event happened inside the apartment. We did hear two gunshots, so because of the fire damage, the water damage, everything in the home is burned, so we have to make that determination. A homicide, as soon as the fire is clear that there's no more fire in the apartment complex, in the actual unit, then we'll make that determination once the medical examiners arrive. But we did hear a series of gunshots inside of the apartment, but we don't know if he lost his life because of gunfire. Possible gunfire, possible fire, possible smoke inhalation from the fire, yes, sir. We don't know at this time. They had domestic problems inside the home and we don't know why it happened. We interviewed the mother and she told us that she had never had problems with the boy before. We don't know why at this time. We don't know at this time because the apartment is being destroyed by the fire and by applying water, the fire, everything inside, the sofas, the beds, everything is burned, everything is well burned. So when the entire apartment is cleaned and the bodies are taken out of the home, then the medical examiner will make that determination. At this point, sir, we don't know, right? We don't know if the fire was the cause of death or something else. Randy, we don't know that now. We know that, you know, like Lieutenant Pulido said, they had the DAWN fire equipment. They banged the door immediately and then when they banged the door, our SWAT team, the fire was already too hot. And I said in Spanish that we actually deployed a small drone and it was too much for the drone. We think we lost the drone inside because of the heat. So we don't know what the cause of death is at the moment. Once the fire is completely put out, the medical examiners will make that determination. How are you trying to sum up the whole situation? You know, I think that it's just a domestic situation inside the home that perhaps the parents weren't prepared for and our team responded quickly. I want to thank the Houston Fire Department for obviously coming and joining arm to arm trying to save this family. They did an amazing job trying to clear the other apartments as well because it could have been catastrophic. We could have lost more people in the apartments and the other families were very, very cooperative and we're trying to get them to answer your question, Grizzy, into their homes as soon as possible. I mean, like you said, this could have been so much worse. Yes, again, I mean, it happened in 10 seconds from the time we were about to pinnage or breach the door then it was fully engulfed. I don't know at that moment, we interviewed the mother outside of the apartment complex briefly and she told us that never had any kind of violent situation with a young man that created the situation by stabbing the brother. You know, I don't know that other than he was, appeared to be disabled in some way. Thank you, Chief. Thank you all, I think, yes. Well, we won't know that, the medical examiners will make that determination because of the fire damage and the fire is very severe and both father and the son have been burned because of the flames. So they'll make that determination once it gets to the medical examiner's office. But right now, outwardly, we can't see that. If you will, Chief, once again, I'm sorry, will you kind of sum up the whole situation? Okay, sure. So today, unfortunately, we had a domestic violence situation inside of a home here at this apartment behind us. The disturbance inside the home involved one brother stabbing another brother. We don't know why they stabbed each other. We interviewed the mother outside of the apartment, the fire department, helped took the stabbed brother to a nearby hospital where we believe that he's in stable condition. At that time, the mother told us that they had never had any kind of problems, that he never hurt the father or the mother. So we were just kind of in a holding pattern waiting to talk through our necessary steps with the young man trying to get him out to try to solve this peacefully. And then once we had the plan going, it was unfortunate. But we heard the two gunshots and then the apartment caught on fire. And again, could have been so much worse. Sure, I mean, there's a lot of people. It's 420, there's families everywhere. And again, I wanna thank the families for being as cooperative with us when we knocked on their doors. They understood how serious it was and they were able to exit their units quickly and limit the loss of life. And right now, it just looks like two units affected by the fire. Yes, it's upstairs and a downstairs. Downstairs is where the event happened. The upstairs unit is also damaged. Yes. Yes, ma'am. I do know that there is an investigation with the young man and perhaps he was on some sort of probation or had an active warrant. Our crime suppression team here in this area was out looking for the young man as a person of interest is all we know at this time. So I can't verify that information, but I do know that he was a person of interest in other investigations in the community. Before today, yes, ma'am. That was, I don't know an exact day, but it was, once we had the address and we put everything together, we have a checklist when we engage with the patrol support team. And during that checklist, when it was determined that that address was connected to another event in the city. Thank you all. I appreciate you covering the story. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.