HPD officer shoots man during narcotics stop in northeast Houston

HOUSTON – A Houston police officer is on desk duty after he shot a suspect in a narcotics investigation in northeast Houston.

According to police, it started as an undercover HPD narcotics investigation. The HPD Northeast Patrol Divisional Tactical Unit  called in a uniformed unit around 9 p.m. Wednesday to make a traffic stop. Officer C. Dorton arrived in the 9600 block of North Wayside near Locksley and pulled over the driver of a white Toyota. Investigators said the driver, Byron Adams, 42, refused commands and would not make eye contact with Dorton. Adams then backed up and rammed a pickup truck twice. 

When Adams made eye contact with the officer, he reached for what the officer thought may have been a gun, investigators said. That's when Dorton fired one round and shot Adams in the side.

"The officer had drawn his weapon once he began ramming the pickup truck behind him. He gave him verbal commands to stop and show his hands," Keese Smith with the Houston Police Department said. "He never showed his hands to the officer despite verbal commands. The suspect refused to make eye contact with the officer, refused to show his hands."

After the shooting, Adams tried to drive away but crashed into a fence. Adams, 42, was treated for a gunshot wound to the arm and released from Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital.

Sources told KPRC 2's Andy Cerota that more than $50,000 in cash was found in Adams' car. He was allegedly in possession of more than 1.5 kilos of cocaine, thousands of ecstasy pills, thousands of oxycontin pills and a large amount of marijuana.

Adams is facing three charges of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance.

Adams was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2003. He was out of jail on parole at the time of the shooting, sources said. 

Dorton, who has been on the force for eight years, was not hurt.

The case is being investigated by HPD Internal Affairs and the Harris County District Attorney's Office.