Boy, 14, fatally shot in scuffle with police

Nov. 22, 2003, 10:03AM


By ROBERT CROWE and DALE LEZON
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

Eli Eloy Escobar II

A 14-year-old boy was fatally shot in the head Friday during a scuffle with Houston police officers at a northwest Houston apartment complex, police said.

Sandra Aponte, a Houston Police Department spokeswoman, did not release the names of the victim or the police officers involved.

Aponte said two officers responded to a criminal mischief call about 6:15 p.m. in the 4600 block of West 34th Street. The person who called police led the officers to the nearby Burnham Woods Apartments at 3130 Mangum, where the suspect was pointed out to police.

"There were several juvenile males there. A struggle ensued between the officers and one of the juveniles. During the struggle, a single gunshot was discharged," Aponte said.

She said the boy was pronounced dead at the scene.

Eli Eloy Escobar Sr., the boy's father, said later Friday that friends took him to the shooting scene and police told him his son, Eli Eloy Escobar II, was shot to death.

"A detective told me Eli had hit the officer in the groin," Escobar said. "The officers wrestled him and the gun went off."

He said he wanted to see his son but a police detective said it wouldn't be good for me to see him.

"He (detective) said it would be better for me to remember him as he was," Escobar said.

One officer, Aponte said, suffered injuries to his wrist and groin during the struggle. "The rest of the details of the struggle and how the shooting happened ... is under investigation."

When asked if police believed the shooting was accidental, Aponte said: "They have not established any of this right now. This is part of the investigation."

One officer is a two-year veteran and the other is a four-year veteran, Aponte said.

Lydia Escobar, the boy's mother, said police came to her job to get her but didn't say her son was dead.

"My son is dead, my only son," the crying mother said later Friday.

She said police took her to the scene and she saw officials removing a covered body, but she didn't get a chance to identify the body.

Lydia Escobar said police told her they were trying to handcuff her son and he struggled with them.

Elmer Sanchez, 14, who said he attended Black Middle School with the victim, said he and the victim were at Sanchez's apartment playing video games when police came to the door and ordered them outside.

One officer told two teens to stand against a nearby fence, he said.

The two boys complained to officers that they didn't understand why they were ordered out the apartment, Elmer said. He said the boys didn't move immediately.

He said one officer grabbed the victim by his shirt and pulled him over to the fence. Somehow the kid fell to ground, he said, and he told police he didn't do anything. He tried to get up and fell again.

Elmer said he then heard one gunshot.

Eli's mother said her son was planning on going to his grandmother's house in Corpus Christi for Thanksgiving. She said her son was a "miracle baby" who had been born six weeks premature April 6, 1989, and weighted 4 pounds, 3 ounces. But she said he "was fighter."

"And now I don't have a son," she said. "It's just me and my husband again."

The father said he came home from work about 4 p.m. Friday. His son asked his father if he could go to a friend's house to play video games and said he'd be home by 6 p.m. When the boy didn't return, the elder Escobar said he began to worry.

"I started feeling inside of me that something was wrong," he said. "I had a pain in my heart."

He said his son was preparing to sing and act in a school Christmas play Dec. 15. He was playing one of the Wisemen, he said. He was a slow-learner, but he had head for computers and loved reading at the library. He also loved music and singing.

"He wanted me to teach him the acoustic guitar," he said.

Lydia Escobar smiled as she talked about her son's natty wardrobe and looked at his Christmas wish list. The list includes Sean John shorts and jeans, a long nnecklace and Nike Airforceone shoes. It also includes wrestling video games and compact discs.

"My baby isn't even going to get to eat turkey like he wanted to with my mother and his uncles," she said.

The father said police told him to met them at their office at noon today to discuss the case.

It's the second time in three weeks that a teen has been shot and killed by a Houston police officer. Jose Vargas Jr., 15, was killed by Officer R.K. Butler Oct. 31 in the parking lot of AMC Studio 30 movie theater on Dunvale. Police said the shooting was an accident.

Butler and another officer were off duty and working security in the movie theater parking lot when they spotted Vargas driving and became suspicious. Vargas drove out of the parking lot and Butler, driving his own car, chased the Chevrolet Blazer north on Dunvale until Vargas was halted by traffic near Westheimer.

Butler got out of his vehicle and walked up to Vargas'. Butler put his gun in the window and, police said, Vargas stepped on the gas. When the car moved, police said, the door frame struck Butler's arm and the gun went off.



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