Man charged after random gunfire wounds sleeping Harris County deputy

A sleeping Harris County sheriff’s deputy was shot in his own north Houston home after police say a man fired randomly from a car, turning an ordinary neighborhood street into a crime scene and leaving Augustine Arellano hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the abdomen.

Houston police arrested 21-year-old Rodrigo Arriaga Jr. and charged him with deadly conduct in the April 27 shooting. Investigators said Arellano was asleep in bed around 1 a.m. when gunfire struck the house and one bullet hit him in the stomach. He underwent surgery and remained hospitalized.

Police said neighborhood surveillance cameras helped link Arriaga to the shooting. Court records quoted in coverage also say a relative told officers Arriaga had been firing a gun randomly out of a car window and had done so before. That detail pushed the case beyond a dispute between known parties and into the category of reckless gunfire that can endanger anyone in the path of a bullet.

Texas law defines deadly conduct to include recklessly placing another person in imminent danger of serious bodily injury and knowingly discharging a firearm at or toward a habitation, building, vehicle or people. Arriaga was being held on a $75,000 bond and was expected back in court the next morning.

The shooting landed hard on a family already marked by one of Houston’s most destructive storms. On May 16, 2024, a tree fell on the Arellano home during the derecho and the house burned down. A GoFundMe created two days later said Augustine Arellano, his wife, Erika, and their children Adrian, Elizabeth and Daniel were displaced. Erika Arellano and the children escaped unharmed, but the family had to rebuild once before and is now facing another crisis as Arellano recovers.

The case also underscores the scale of the agency that employs him. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office says it was founded in 1837, has nearly 5,100 employees and about 200 volunteer reservists, and serves more than 4.1 million residents. The Harris County Deputies Organization said it is offering financial support and prayers as one of its own recovers from what investigators describe as a random burst of gunfire in a residential area.