Houston police narcotics officer under investigation after deadly raid set to retire

Boards cover the front of a home at 7815 Harding Street in Houston, Friday, Feb. 15, 2019, where the occupants of the home were shot to death during a police raid on Jan. 28. A lead investigator lied in an affidavit justifying a drug raid at the Houston home in which two residents were killed and four undercover officers were shot and wounded during a gun battle, the city’s police chief said Friday. less Boards cover the front of a home at 7815 Harding Street in Houston, Friday, Feb. 15, 2019, where the occupants of the home were shot to death during a police raid on Jan. 28. A lead investigator lied in an ... more Photo: Elizabeth Conley, MBO / Associated Press Photo: Elizabeth Conley, MBO / Associated Press Image 1 of / 32 Caption Close Houston police narcotics officer under investigation after deadly raid set to retire 1 / 32 Back to Gallery

A Houston narcotics officer under an internal police investigation following a botched January drug raid is retiring, according to multiple law enforcement sources.

Steven O. Bryant put in his paperwork this week while under investigation following the shooting deaths of two residents in an unannounced raid of a Pecan Park residence in south Houston on Jan. 28. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office is reviewing more than 800 criminal cases brought by Bryant during his 23-year career. Sources said his last day is Friday.

HPD officials relieved Bryant of duty as questions mounted about his actions leading up to the drug raid, in which a team of officers burst into a house at 7815 Harding St. after obtaining a no-knock search warrant. A gun battle ensued, and police killed homeowners Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas. Four officers were hit by gunfire, and a fifth officer was injured.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: FBI opens civil rights investigation into botched Houston drug bust, police chief says

The Pecan Park bust — and the officers' actions — have drawn close scrutiny because police did not find any heroin, only a small quantity of cocaine and marijuana. Investigators later failed to find the confidential informant police relied on to obtain a search warrant.

The case agent, Gerald Goines, was shot in the neck as he entered the private home, but he has also been relieved of duty after Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said the veteran officer appeared to have lied about the undercover drug buy that served as justification for the search warrant used by the squad to raid the house.

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Two other narcotics officers, including a longtime partner of Goines, have quietly retired from the department in recent weeks, including one who is under investigation for an unrelated matter, according to police documents and sources. Each officer had more than 20 years experience with the department.

In a search warrant for Bryant's phone data, an investigator with HPD's Special Investigations Unit wrote that Bryant told investigators he had retrieved two bags of heroin from the center console of Goines' police car at the instruction of another officer.

That, however, was not consistent with the affidavit used to obtain the warrant for the Jan. 28 raid, in which Goines wrote that Bryant identified heroin brought out of the house.

Though he took the two bags of drugs for testing to determine that they were heroin, Bryant eventually told investigators he had never seen the narcotics in question before retrieving them from the car.

Multiple law enforcement sources confirmed Bryant put in his retirement paperwork this week. An ongoing investigation would not affect his compensation benefits.

READ MORE: Houston police officer Gerald Goines had previous allegations against him

Bryant’s retirement is the latest fallout from the deadly raid, and comes as Acevedo has launched a wide-ranging probe into the division and its operations following the raid. The FBI has launched a rare civil rights investigation into the operation.

The Harris County District Attorney’s Office has announced it is investigating 2,200 of the former criminal cases of Goines and Bryant. Acevedo has dramatically curtailed no-knock raids, and said he will equip raid teams with body cameras to record the operations. At the time of the raid, none of the members of the raid team was wearing cameras.

Houston Police Officers’ Union President Joe Gamaldi declined to comment on Bryant’s departure, citing the fact that it is a personnel matter and the ongoing investigation.

Acevedo did not respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon. Bryant could not be reached and union attorneys representing Bryant did not respond to a request for comment.

st.john.smith@chron.com

keri.blakinger@chron.com

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