Armed Man Killed by HPD Officers After Charging Them With Butcher Knife

Three Houston police officers fatally shot a 49-year-old man at the Bennington Square Apartments on the 6300 block of West Bellfort Avenue Thursday morning after the man charged at them holding a large butcher knife, HPD spokesperson Adrian Rodriguez confirmed.

Apartment lobby staff had placed the 911 call at 11:18 a.m., reporting the man was in the parking lot making jabbing motions with the knife. An ambulance was already on scene when officers arrived. Officers were directed to an upstairs unit where the suspect had last been seen.

"As they made the approach to the scene upstairs, the suspect abruptly came out with a large butcher knife, coming out of the complex towards the officers, and the officers discharged multiple rounds to the suspect," Rodriguez said.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene. No officers were injured.

The three officers who discharged their weapons carried 8 years, 24 years, and 4.5 years of law enforcement experience, respectively. All three were placed on mandatory three-day administrative leave, standard HPD protocol after any officer-involved shooting.

Three simultaneous investigations are now underway. HPD's Special Investigative Unit and Internal Affairs Division are each conducting independent reviews; the Harris County District Attorney's Office has opened a parallel inquiry. The multi-agency structure is applied to every HPD officer-involved shooting without exception.

Under HPD General Order 600.17, officers are authorized to use deadly force when they reasonably perceive an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to themselves or others. A suspect actively charging with an edged weapon at close range falls squarely within that standard.

Body camera footage from all three officers will be released within 30 days, per the transparency policy HPD established in 2021. That policy, first invoked following the May 2021 shooting death of 25-year-old Zaekwon Gullate, requires public release of footage from any police shooting on a defined timeline. At that pace, footage from Thursday's incident is due by May 1. Residents can request related incident reports through the Texas Public Information Act by submitting a written request to the City of Houston's public records office.

The Westbury shooting fits a pattern of elevated activity. HPD recorded 28 officer-involved shooting incidents in both 2024 and 2025, each resulting in 12 deaths. That is nine more incidents per year than the 19 logged in 2023. The department's highest single-year total in at least two decades remains 2009, when 49 incidents resulted in 16 deaths.

Anyone in Harris County experiencing a behavioral health crisis can reach the MHMRA of Harris County Helpline at 713-970-7000, which operates 24 hours a day. The national 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline provides immediate support by call or text. The Harris County Crisis Intervention Team advises residents on how to engage emergency services when someone appears to be in mental health crisis, including guidance on what information to provide when calling 911.

"Our hearts go out to everybody that's involved in this tragic incident," Rodriguez said.