A motive for the shooting was not immediately clear. “It appears that Deputy Goforth’s killing was unprovoked”.
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“We have not been able to extract any motive at this time”, Hickman said.
Sheriff Ron Hickman today said that police had recovered a handgun, and ballistics tests matched it to the crime.
The deputy died at the scene and the suspect fled the scene, Gilliland said.
The man in custody is “believed to be the alleged gunman”, Sgt.
Reports say that surveillance video shows there were people at the gas station when the officer was ambushed by Miles. He asked them to come forward. Speaking of his death, Allison said “it was just something that you don’t expect to ever happen”. “Our system of justice absolutely requires a law enforcement presence to protect our community”, Hickman said at a news conference earlier on Saturday.
Brian McCullar knew Goforth because the deputy had patrolled his neighborhood, which is about two miles from the gas station, and spoke often.
Officials said Deputy Goforth had motivated towards the assistance station at Telge and West after answering a regular motor vehicle accident around 30 moments previously.
Deputy Darren H. Goforth, 47, was in uniform at a Chevron gas station when the killer approached him from behind and shot him multiple times. “I don’t recall another incident this cold-blooded and cowardly”. They spent much of the day at the Cypress area home where Miles lived with his mom and brother.
Police say a suspect shot Goforth in the back.
Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman says authorities will “follow the evidence to the logical and legal conclusion” in the fatal shooting of one of the office’s deputies. “There are a few bad apples in every profession”. That does not mean there should be open warfare declared on law enforcement.
Hickman warned that the tension against officers is getting out of hand. Earlier on Saturday, Hickman had called the killing a “cold-blooded assassination”.
Hickman was blunt in his defense of law enforcement in the midst of protests against police by movements such as Black Lives Matter, which has complained of police violence and mass incarceration of blacks. A Spokesman from the Sheriff’s Office Deputy said the person is not under arrest and he isn’t a suspect or a person of interest. “The general climate of that kind of rhetoric can be influential on people to do things like this”.
“The sheriff’s department posted “#BlueLivesMatter. “#BlackLivesMatter. All #LivesMatter”. “It gives us some peace knowing this individual is no longer at large and he wasn’t somebody that would be targeting the rest of the community”, Sheriff Hickman said.
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Goforth is survived by his wife, who works as a school teacher, and two children, ages 12 and 5, Allison said. “Please continue to pray during this hard time”. “It strikes us all at the heart of public service”.
