HPD officer suspended in tear gas incident at rodeo

A veteran Houston police officer participating with a cooking team at the Houston rodeo's Bar-B-Que cook-off has been relieved of duty for reportedly tossing a tear gas canister at booth opponents during the popular event, apparently sickening several patrons.

The tear gas also reached a tent occupied by several military veterans including some amputees in wheelchairs.

Senior police officer Mike Hamby, 51, was relieved of duty with pay on Monday while he is under investigation for "criminal allegations," said HPD spokeswoman Jodi Silva. The nature of the allegations against Hamby are under investigation by the internal affairs division and will not be disclosed, Silva said.

At the Houston Police Officer's Union, Hamby resigned as a member Monday of the board of directors. Union president Gary Blankinship said he had no comment.

Hamby, who joined HPD in December 1980, is assigned to the department's burglary and theft division. Hamby has had seven previous internal affairs complaints sustained against him including misconduct, improper police procedure and two accidents, according to HPD records.

'Astounded' by incident

Rodeo officials, who said they were "astounded" by the incident on Friday, confirmed an HPD assistant chief told them Monday that the department was investigating allegations a police officer released tear gas during the cook-off.

It's unclear why the tear gas was used. An HPD investigator familiar with the incident who did not want to be identified said Hamby was off-duty and participating with a cook-off team when he allegedly threw the canister into the booth of an opposing cook-off team. Hamby did not respond to several messages left on his phone.

Susie Barlow, director of the USO center in Houston, confirmed several of her organization's guestswere in a tent affected by the gas Friday night.

She stressed that USO members had nothing to do with the release of the gas, and the canister was not thrown into their tent.

"We became the unwelcome recipients of the gas as well," said Barlow, adding the incident occurred late in the evening when there were about 10 people in the tent. "We were devastated by it. We have elderly people, and I have two folks that night who were a double and triple amputee in wheelchairs.“

Leroy Shafer, chief operating officer of the Houston Rodeo and Livestock Show, said the organization was able to confirm that Hamby was not employed by the rodeo as part of the security force.

"He was not in uniform, and he was not serving in any police capacity when he did this," Shafer said.

Shafer said each cook-off team that brings a tent to the popular pre-rodeo activity is required to provide two uniformed security officers. This year there were about 330 teams during the three-day event that ended Saturday. Shafer said 117,000 people attended the cook-off on its last day.

Shafer said Hamby has been removed from his volunteer duties on the rodeo's calf scramble committee, where he was a captain who supervised the event.

Internal investigation

Mike DeMarco, executive director for the rodeo, said he was informed by Assistant Chief Don McKinney that HPD was investigating the incident.

"Chief McKinney stopped me in the parking lot and said had I heard of an incident in Bar-B-Que cookoff area, this is what I've been told, but don't have confirmation," DeMarco said. "He said our IAD (internal affairs department) is investigating it."

Shafer and DeMarco said use of tear gas during rodeo events is not permitted, and they would have filed criminal charges against a citizen who released the gas.

"I can't think that we could punish him any more than HPD can, but how stupid can an individual be," DeMarco said. "If it was John Q. Public, we would arrest then press the full charges that the law would allow."

james.pinkerton@chron.com