A Houston woman was shot at her friend’s apartment this month by sheriff’s deputies who responded to a burglary report and fired repeatedly at the home, according to a statement and body camera footage released by the county sheriff’s office. Grace.
Early on Feb. 3, the woman, Eboni Pouncy, and her friend broke a window to get in after forgetting the house key, according to a statement released last week by civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Ms. Pouncy.
The women were startled when, after 2 a.m., deputies began knocking on the door, according to Mr. Crump. Fearing an intruder, Ms. Pouncy reached for her legally registered firearm and, moments later, was struck by five bullets, she said.
Paramedics took Ms. Pouncy to a hospital for treatment, the sheriff’s office said. While the nature of her injuries was unclear, Mr Crump said in a statement that she was recovering.
According to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, the two deputies responded to a report of an intruder at an apartment on the city’s east side around 2:10 a.m., but found no one inside. A short time later, a resident of a neighboring apartment told deputies someone had broken into another second-floor apartment, the sheriff’s office said. When deputies went to investigate the break-in, they found the front window screen removed, glass broken and blinds up near the front door, the sheriff’s office said.
The video, captured by deputies’ body cameras and released Saturday, shows the two deputies, who appear to be women, walk up the stairs of the apartment, knock on the front door, then retreat a few feet away. One of the deputies says he sees someone coming and yells, and then both deputies start firing repeatedly through the glass windows. They both reload their guns and continue to fire several times.
The sheriff’s office is investigating the shooting and has placed both deputies involved on administrative leave. No criminal charges have been brought. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office is also investigating the shooting, a standard practice when law enforcement officers use potentially deadly force.
Neither the sheriff’s office nor the district attorney could immediately be reached for comment Tuesday night.
Laronda Berry, the resident and friend of Ms. Pouncy, said in an interview Friday that she had told Ms. Pouncy to break the window and that she had been inside only 20 minutes when they heard “loud banging” on the door. “The only crime that was committed that day was by the police,” he said.
Mr. Crump – who for more than two decades has advocated for the families of black people killed by police officers – said the episode reminded him of his Breonna Taylor, a black doctor who was shot and killed by police in Louisville, Ky., in March 2020 during a botched raid on her apartment.
In statement posted on social media on Monday, said the shooting “should never have happened, and this newly released body camera video is proof of the unnecessary and excessive force used against her.”
The video, he added, proved the deputies “shot first and asked questions later.”
