A sheriff's deputy was killed Thursday after gunfire erupted while he was serving a warrant at a home in Central Texas, authorities said.
Sgt. Adam Sowders was part of a team of officers entering a rural residence east of the town of Somerville to serve a warrant, Burleson County Sheriff Dale Stroud said. He was shot as the team entered just before 6 a.m. and later died of his injuries. No other officers were injured.
One suspect was in custody, Stroud said at a Thursday afternoon news conference. The sheriff did not identify the suspect.
The warrant was served at a rural residence east of the town of Somerville, about 90 miles northwest of Houston, according to Trooper Jimmy Morgan of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
According to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, Sowders had been a Burleson sheriff's deputy for seven years and had previously served as a police officer in Somerville.
Stroud said Sowders, 31, had recently been promoted to a sergeant investigator position.
"Adam was well-respected, extremely well-liked, and he's going to leave a big hole in what we do here," Stroud said.
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Sowders graduated from Somerville High School in 2001. School district superintendent Charles Camarillo recalled Sowders Thursday as a friendly, professional officer who was well-known in their small town. A handful of the district's current teachers went to school with Sowders.
Josephine Reese had Sowders in her biology class when he was a sophomore. Reese said Thursday that she wasn't surprised to see him pursue a law enforcement career.
"He's the kind of person that was for what's right and wanting others to do the right thing," she said.
Reese remembered Sowders more than a decade later for his reserved, attentive nature.
"I never saw him in a stressful situation where he couldn't handle things," Reese said. "It was a wonderful student to have in class, because you never had to stay on him about anything."
The Texas Rangers and the Texas Highway Patrol are also investigating.
