Suspect hit in shootout with off-duty officer

Bullet holes are shown on the off-duty officer's vehicle on Tuesday. Bullet holes are shown on the off-duty officer's vehicle on Tuesday. Photo: Mike Glenn, Chronicle Photo: Mike Glenn, Chronicle Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Suspect hit in shootout with off-duty officer 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

An off-duty Houston police officer thought he was meeting two men who expressed an interest in buying a couple of his personal firearms.

Something didn't feel right to HPD officer C. Curry when he pulled up to a small public park in south Houston on Tuesday. He became the victim of an attempted armed robbery that quickly turned into a gunfight, police said.

The officer-involved shooting happened about 1:15 p.m. Tuesday outside Cloverland Park in the 3800 block of Hickok Lane at Scott.

Curry had placed an ad on the Texas Gun Trader website about selling two handguns he owned.

Police believe it was the robbery suspects who answered the ad. Curry agreed to meet them at Cloverland Park.

"He wanted to do it in a public place," said Victor Senties, a Houston police spokesman.

Senties did not know how much Curry was asking for the guns, but on the website, the price tag for pistols can range from about $300 to almost $2,000 depending on the model and the condition.

Curry was in civilian clothes and in his pickup when he drove by the park. He spotted only a single man pacing by the public swimming pool.

"Something didn't feel right, so he decided he was going to leave," Senties said.

Curry was driving away when he got a telephone call from one of the men who had answered the ad, police said.

"He said, 'I'm here. Where are you?' " Senties said.

The HPD officer turned around and returned to the park.

The man he had seen pacing quickly walked up to the passenger's side window. He was soon joined by a second man, police said.

One of them opened the door and pointed a gun at Curry.

"He tells him, 'Give me all you've got, or I'm going to kill you right here,' " Senties said.

The robber pulled the trigger, but the pistol jammed, police said.

Curry put the pickup in reverse and began backing away. He got out and took cover.

The off-duty HPD officer and the robbers began shooting at each other on the street outside the park.

Bullet holes were later visible in the tail gate of Curry's pickup.

After a brief gunbattle, the robbers fled the scene, running through a nearby residential neighborhood.

Police said one of them showed up at a Houston Fire Department station. He had a gunshot wound and was taken to Ben Taub General Hospital, where his condition wasn't known later Tuesday.

The other man remains at large. HPD officials did not have a detailed description of him.

Curry was not injured during the hold-up or the later exchange of gunfire.

HPD officials said he joined the department in April 2014 and is assigned to the North Patrol Division.

Houston police homicide and internal affairs detectives — along with the Harris County District Attorney's Office — are investigating.