An officer-involved shooting outside a popular restaurant and shopping area sent diners scrambling for cover on a busy evening, after Houston police opened fire on a suspect along a heavily traveled stretch of Westheimer in the Highland Village area. New details have since filled in the picture of a tense standoff that ended in a barrage of police gunfire but, remarkably, left no one killed.
The shooting unfolded in the Highland Village shopping district, near Drexel, a corridor that was bustling at the dinner hour. Among the businesses in the area is the restaurant Escalante's, which was full of customers when the gunfire erupted just outside.
According to police, the encounter began when an off-duty officer working extra security spotted a parked car in a lot and flagged it as suspicious. Investigators then determined that the vehicle had been stolen out of Fort Bend County, turning what began as a routine check into a lengthy confrontation.
Police said the man inside, later identified as Jamarcus Spates, refused to get out of the car for about 25 minutes. When officers finally moved in, they say, he opened his door, extended his arm and made it look as though he had a gun.
That was the moment, according to police, when nine HPD officers opened fire. Despite the number of officers who shot, Spates was, incredibly, only grazed by a bullet, surviving what police described as a dangerous encounter that could easily have ended far worse.
Inside Escalante's, diners who had stopped in for a quick, casual dinner suddenly heard gunshots ring out. They described running to hide, ducking under tables and behind whatever walls they could find as the situation unfolded just outside. Some began recording video during the ordeal and later shared their footage with FOX 26.
In the aftermath, Spates was charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Authorities continued to review the confrontation that had played out in front of so many onlookers, an officer-involved shooting that drew a large police response to one of Houston's busy shopping and dining districts.