Arturo Solis had racked up a slew of criminal convictions dating back to 2014, but his father said on Sunday he seemed to be getting his life back on track.

His son, however, now faces a capital murder charge and is accused of fatally shooting and killing Houston Police Sgt. Christopher Brewster.

“He’s going to have to pay for what he did,” Roberto Solis, 59, said of his 25-year-old son. “But it wasn’t him. It was his mind.”

Authorities said Solis’ girlfriend called 911 on Saturday and reported he was armed with two guns and had assaulted her. Brewster arrived to find the woman walking down the street behind Solis. She yelled out, “That’s who you are looking for,” pointing to her boyfriend, according to the statement prosecutors read Sunday morning at Solis’ probable cause hearing in which a Harris County judge ordered him to be held without bond.

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The prosecutors stated Brewster waved and called out to Solis to get his attention, at which point the east Houston man shot the nine-year HPD veteran “unprovoked” multiple times near the 7400 block of Avenue L.

Despite his injuries, Brewster managed to radio in a description of Solis to his fellow officers before losing consciousness. The officer was wearing a bulletproof vest but was struck in areas it did not cover.

“This offense was committed in a cold cowardly manner, where the defendant shot (Brewster) without provocation of any kind,” senior prosecutor Jim Leitner wrote in a motion arguing against bail. “The officer was shot without warning before he could even touch his own weapon.”

On Sunday, District Attorney Kim Ogg said prosecutors were “confident” they had the correct suspect and will be pursuing a capital murder charge.

“Whether we will seek the death penalty is the subject of a longer process that will involve a review by a committee of senior prosecutors of evidence presented by case prosecutors and defense attorneys,” she said.

On Monday morning, police are set to escort the slain officer’s body to a funeral home in north Houston.

Funeral arrangements are still pending, but Police Chief Art Acevedo said visitation is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday with a service set for 10 a.m. Thursday.

Outside Brewster’s house, a police officer on Sunday said family members did not wish to speak publicly. Neighbors said he lived at the home for about two years.

The shooting — which occurred on the 11th anniversary of the killing of another HPD officer, Timothy Scott Abernethy — left police officers stunned and grieving.

In a tweet posted early Sunday morning, Acevedo recalled Brewster as a “hero through & through.”

“I will always cherish his infectious smile & his love for his family, friends, co-workers & community,” Acevedo wrote.

Brewster joined the department in 2010, working patrol and then in the gang and major offenders divisions. He was promoted to sergeant earlier this year and assigned to the Eastside Patrol Division.

Joe Gamaldi, president of the Houston Police Officers’ Union, described Brewster as a “true crime fighter, who loved his job.”

“We are truly hurting right now, trying to make sense of an upside down world,” Gamaldi wrote.

The tragedy was not the only one to befall the extended HPD family Saturday night, Gamaldi wrote, noting that an officer killed in an apparent ambush in Arkansas, Fayetteville Police Department Officer Stephen Carr, was the son of a retired HPD sergeant.

Throughout Sunday, new details emerged about both the shooting and Solis’ criminal past.

After police read Solis his “Miranda warnings” — advising him of his right not to answer questions from law enforcement — he told officers he should have shot his girlfriend, prosecutors said.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is looking into how Solis obtained the two firearms police recovered after the shooting. “We are conducting emergency traces of the firearms and working with HPD to identify the source,” Special Agent Nicole Strong wrote in an email.

Roberto Solis said his son didn’t own guns until someone broke into Arturo’s home. After burglars took a TV and cash from the home, Arturo Solis armed himself, Roberto said.

“He wasn’t a bad person,” the elder Solis said. “A bunch of people didn’t treat him right.”

Solis said his son had shown signs of schizophrenia and depression in his teens and had not been taking prescribed medication. An acquaintance of Arturo Solis told the Chronicle that the east Houston man had struggled with depression in recent years and was frustrated over visitation rights with his child.

Court records show Solis has a lengthy criminal record, including misdemeanor assault of a family member. That incident began after an ex-girlfriend returned home from work around 5:30 a.m. Aug. 11, 2015, and went to bed. Prosecutors alleged Solis tried to wake her up to make him breakfast, but she “did not wake up on time,” at which point Solis punched her, slapped her and scratched her neck. Solis told an investigating officer he “only used his foot” to wake the woman, then ate breakfast and left for work.

Solis ultimately pleaded guilty and received a 70-day jail sentence.

Six months later, in March 2016, he was accused of evading arrest from a Houston police officer. According to court records, Solis caused a scene at a Texas Department of Human Services office on Telephone Road. Solis got upset with “procedure” at the office, walked outside and slammed the front door against a brick wall, knocking the glass ajar. An officer attempted to detain Solis, who fled. He was arrested later at his house on Myrtle Street, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 days in jail.

In early January 2017, officers arrested him for breaking into a car outside a Hobby Lobby in Webster.

Kendyl Count, 34, was walking out of the store with her husband to find Solis rummaging through the center console of their black Ford F-250.

The couple ran up to Solis, wrested a screwdriver out of his hand and tackled him to the ground before Webster police arrived and arrested him. Solis didn’t steal anything from their truck, but they had to pay to replace a door, which was damaged during the break-in.

Solis told police that he broke into the car because he was “hurting for money” and hadn’t eaten in days. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five months in jail.

At the time, Count said, she thought Solis was “just a young punk kid.”

“He was a kid and already doing this stuff, so this was obviously a pattern,” Count said Sunday. “It’s really sad for the family of the police officer. I hope (Solis) goes away for a long time.”

In east Houston, neighbors on Sunday grappled with their street being turned into a crime scene — with the slain sergeant’s blood staining one driveway.

Jose Sanchez, 41, was in the kitchen with his wife Saturday when he heard five gunshots — loud and close in front of the home next door.

“I ran to lock the door,” he said. He ushered his three children upstairs, then locked the back door as well.

“I looked through the window, saw the cop talking on the radio,” Sanchez said. “I looked through the window again, and he was on the floor.”

Two officers performed CPR on Brewster as another stood guard, he said. Police barricaded part of the block for at least six hours Saturday night as officers investigated.

Eventually, Sanchez asked police to check his backyard for the suspect as a precaution. When Sanchez later walked out of his home, he saw a neighbor crying.

Luis Torres, 22, was coming home only to find police had blocked off the 7400 block of Avenue I where the 911 call originated. Houston police patrol the area regularly, but Torres said he had never seen so many officers there in the few months he’d been living on Avenue I.

“What the hell happened?” Torres recalled thinking.

Paul Takahashi and Julian Gill contributed to this report.

gwendolyn.wu@chron.com

st.john.smith@chron.com