Police officer killed, another injured during incident in Houston

A Houston police officer was killed Tuesday and a second officer was injured on Tuesday morning in what Police Chief Ralph Acevedo called a “domestic violence-type situation.”

The officer killed was Officer Harold Preston, 65, a 41-year-old police veteran. Acevedo described Preston as a great cop “and a better person.”

According to Acevedo, officers were called to a home in the city’s southwest side of the city by a woman who described herself as the estranged wife of the man who lived there. She said she was moving out and needed to collect her belongings, but her husband wouldn’t let her in the house.

When police approached the door, the suspect allegedly fired at the officers. Preston was shot multiple times in the head. A second officer, Officer Cortney Waller, was shot in the shoulder and is expected to survive.

Several hours after police first arrived, the suspect emerged from the house and exchanged gunfire with police. The suspect, idnetified as Elmer Manzano, 51, was transported to the hospital and is expected to survive. Acevedo said Manzano will likely be charged with murder.

Manzano’s son was also injured in the incident and was transported to a local children’s hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

KTRK-TV in Houston reports that Tuesday’s shooting comes days after a Houston Fire Department Arson Investigator was shot and killed while doing surveillance in the northwest side of the city.