Results tagged “dwayneready”

Good morning, Houston. We all know there are some perennially bad traffic spots around town — seriously, we all know — and now one of our local traffic nightmares has made Forbes' list of America's worst traffic traps. The spot is the Katy Freeway/West Loop interchange, which Forbes says costs drivers a whopping 25 million-plus hours of delays each year. That makes the 10/610 interchange the second worst in the country, by Forbes' reckoning,...

Well, here's something to be proud of: Houston's homicide rate is now the second-highest among large American cities, according to FBI figures released Monday. Keep in mind that this is the homicide rate we're talking about — Houston's was 18.2 per 100,000 residents last year, putting us second only to Philadelphia and ahead of Dallas (fifth place), which has had a higher homicide rate than Houston for each of the last 11 years. The numbers...

Police say a man living at an upscale Galleria-area apartment complex e-mailed friends and family announcing his own death before shooting two people, beating one and then turning the gun on himself Monday afternoon. The gunman, 48-year-old David Howard Thurm, was apparently angry over his pending eviction from The Post Oak at Woodway, 99 N. Post Oak Lane. HPD spokesman Capt. Dwayne Ready said Thurm was called to the apartment complex's office just before 1...

A lot seems not to add up in the story of a man who was Tasered while trying to leave a Houston hospital with his newborn daughter in the middle of the night — and the part about the man trying to take off in the middle of the night is just the tip of the iceberg. It all took place at The Woman's Hospital of Texas at about 1:30 a.m. Thursday, when 30-year-old William...

Police are still investigating a fatal shooting aboard a Metro bus yesterday that was apparently triggered by a passenger bumping into another passenger. It happened around 11:45 a.m. on the No. 82 bus as it was inbound on Westheimer near Royal Oaks Club Drive: "The suspect was on the bus making his way through the center aisle when he brushed up against the victim," HPD Capt. Dwayne Ready told KPRC. The two exchanged words, and...

Talk about criminals who make unfortunate decisions: On Friday, two HPD officers shot a burglary suspect on their lunch break when they found him trying to steal their car. It happened at the Asian City restaurant near Deerbrook Mall; when undercover investigators T.D. Butler and M.W. Hamby (or, as KHOU reports, Handy) finished lunch and walked outside, they found a man sitting in their car. And things went downhill from there: "They ordered the suspect...

HPD's plan to encourage police officers to work overtime to make up for a staffing shortage seems to be working — at least in terms of the overtime. The Chronicle reports today that the number of HPD officers earning more than $50,000 in overtime soared in 2006, totaling 70 — three times as many as earned that much in 2005. The four officers at the top of the list took home more than $100,000 in...

The couple who called the cops the night of the infamous Two Gallants show at Walter's on Washington spoke to the Chronicle this weekend: Ryland and Scott Peveto, who own a Victorian shotgun house behind the club, say that the bass from Walter's is shaking their house — and their peace of mind. The Pevetos said when they bought the house a couple of years ago, noise wasn't much of an issue; now, though, the...

When you're investigating fatal car crashes and other crime scenes, we imagine the last thing you want is a camera that doesn't work — but that seems to be exactly what HPD is dealing with, according to a couple of news reports. The case in question is the death of Leon and Maureen Roberson, the elderly couple killed Oct. 18 when a speeding wrecker broadsided their car as they left Bible study at their northeast...

Well, here's something to be proud of: Houston's 2006 homicide rate is on track to be the highest in more than 10 years. Between Jan. 1 and Oct. 16, HPD recorded 316 homicides, up 25 percent over the same period last year — an increase police blame in part on Katrina evacuees: "We recognize that the homicide rate is up as far as raw numbers and as well as percentages relative to the population,'' said...

Despite recent gentrification in Montrose, many of the problems that have plagued the neighborhood for years — homelessness, drug use, prostitution — still remain. And despite residents' attempts to change things, Avondale still experiences incidents like the attempted bust by undercover cops that ended in gunfire Tuesday night. So what's ahead? Well, it's not clear. The foiled undercover bust was being conducted in response to a number of complaints about prostitution in Avondale, HPD Capt....

Police have arrested a 15-year-old girl in the stabbing death of a teen boy Tuesday afternoon at a Montrose-area park. The victim, Gabriel Granillo, and two friends were attacked by 20 or 30 people at Ervan Chew Park in what police say was a gang attack; even though HPD said it believes the incident was an isolated incident, they're stepping up patrols in the area just in case. Meanwhile, more details are merging about the...

More than two dozen local middle and high school students were arrested today while protesting changes in U.S. immigration law. It happened on South Post Oak near Gasmer when police tried to round up about 80 students from Madison High School and Dowling Middle School. Some of the students ran into traffic, through construction sites and into an apartment complex, KPRC reported, and police ended up arresting 26 of them for breaking truancy laws. "We...