Montrose prostitution sting ends in gunplay

An attempted prostitution sting last night turned into a gun battle between undercover cops and a suspect and ended with the suspect getting shot, another suspect getting away and no prostitutes in tow.

It happened around 10:45 p.m. on Avondale Street when two officers on the HPD vice squad, acting on complaints from residents, were trying to arrest some prostitutes. According to KTRK, a suspect approached the undercover cops and said he was a police officer. (Maybe that was the first problem: "Hey guys, I'm a cop." "No, we are ... oops! I mean, we're undercover. Oops!") A second man then came up and began shooting at the cops — just the real ones, apparently.

The undercover officers chased the suspect down the street, and one of them ended up shooting him at Westheimer and Helena; neither of the officers was hit. The suspect is recovering at Ben Taub and could face a charge of attempted capital murder of a police officer when he recovers. The other suspect (and, we assume, the suspected prostitute) got away.