Houston

Chief: Injured Houston Officer Shot 3 Times in Line of Duty

The 54-year-old was one of five officers injured Monday

One of four undercover narcotics officers shot while serving a search warrant at a suspected drug house in Houston was a "tough as nails" supervisor who has been struck by gunfire two other times in his career, the city's police chief said.

"That officer -- who is actually the officer that breached the door ... immediately knew that ... his partners were down and he made entry. When he made entry, he himself got shot," Chief Art Acevedo said Tuesday.

The 54-year-old supervisor was among five officers injured Monday. Four of the officers were shot and a fifth suffered a knee injury. The two suspects were killed.

Acevedo said the names of the injured officers are not being released because they work undercover.

He described the supervisor as a "strong ox" and "big teddy bear."

"The only thing bigger than his body, in terms of his stature, is his courage," Acevedo said. "I think God had to give him that big body to be able to contain his courage because the man's got some tremendous courage."

The supervisor told another officer in the hospital that he didn't hesitate when he knew his colleagues had been hit.

"He just passed a note to one of our officers that said: `I had to get in there because I knew my guys were down,"' Acevedo said Tuesday.

Acevedo said the supervisor had also been shot in 1992 and 1997. Acevedo didn't provide details of the other shootings.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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