HOUSTON – Residents at a Greenspoint area apartment complex are in shock after a deadly Houston Police Department helicopter crash early Saturday morning.
One officer was killed and another one injured after the 75 Fox helicopter crashed into a vacant building at the Biscayne at City View apartments at 17050 Imperial Valley Drive. The chopper made a large indentation in the office, wedging between the building and a palm tree on its decline.
The wreckage is a short distance away from several apartment buildings filled with sleeping families.
Linda Mejia Zuniga's husband was asleep in their nearby apartment building when the crash happened.
"My husband is OK," Zuniga said. "It looks like it didn't hit any apartments with people in it. The office is an office, so it's empty. But there are always security guards right there."
Zuniga looked over at the wreckage with sadness. Her step-father is a police officer, so the crash hit close to home in more than one way.
"I feel sorry for the officers or whoever was in the helicopter," she said. "But, I'm glad that it didn't hit any apartment because it's a low-income area, and there's a lot of people in one apartment."
Houston Police Department Chief Art Acevedo called the incident tragic but said there's a silver lining in everything.
"If that aircraft would have crashed into an occupied building, who knows," he said. "It would have been a very ugly scene, and as a result of that silver lining, we didn't have any other loss of life. We have a pilot that's in there right now that's fighting for his."
No one at the apartment complex was injured.