Say Anything Blog

A deputy in Harris County, Texas, was forced to shoot at a vehicle which was trying to ram her during an investigation.

Houston Chronicle - The incident happened shortly after 1 a.m. Friday when Deputy Evonnashanta Quinney, an 11-year Harris County Sheriff's Department veteran assigned to the jail division, was notified by her son of a suspicious vehicle near their home, authorities said.

Quinney saw two people in a truck backed up at a house under construction in the 3900 block of Coral Shadows. Sheriff's officials said the pair tried to flee when they saw her.

Quinney thought they were going to ram into her vehicle, so she fired at their truck, shooting the pickup's radiator and front grille several times, internal affairs investigators said.

The pickup struck Quinney's car, damaging the front left quarter panel.Numerous construction materials in the bed of the fleeing truck fell into the street.along with the truck's tailgate, which came off.

Seems straight-forward enough to me. Fleeing suspects attempt to harm a law enforcement officer by ramming her vehicle, she responds with a volley of bullets.

Unfortunately, it would appear as though her department has a new policy about firing at vehicles.

Friday's shooting is the first in which a deputy has fired into a vehicle since Sheriff Tommy Thomas adopted a new policy on such shootings last month.

A recent Chronicle investigation found that sheriff's deputies have wounded or killed 22 people inside vehicles since 1999.

The new policy forbids officers to fire into vehicles except when someone inside is pointing a gun or using some type of deadly force other than the vehicle itself.

Seems to me that if 22 people have tried to harm officers with their vehicles then 22 wounded or dead sounds about right. The simplest solution to this problem is not one for the Sheriff's Department to institute but rather one for the suspects themselves.

If you don't want to get shot at then don't ram the officer's vehicle.