HOUSTON – Charges were not pursued against “Elbert Manzano” after a pair of incidents that preceded Tuesday’s shooting that killed one officer and wounded another, according to documents obtained by KPRC 2 Investigates from the Harris County District Attorney’s Office and the Houston Police Department.
According to an intake disposition report from an incident on Monday, the prosecutors were examining the offense as a “terrorisric threat,” which is how it was written in the report. In the notes section, it reads, “OFFICER DOES NOT BELIEVE THAT AN OFFENSE OCCURRED AFTER TALKING WITH ALL OF THE PARTIES.”
The DA’s office also confirmed that Manzano’s first name, which is Elmer, is misspelled on the intake report.
KPRC 2 Investigates also obtained an incident report from a Sunday call that was filed by the Houston police officer who responded to the scene of a “disturbance.” In the Officer’s Action section of the report, the officer wrote: “I contacted Harris County District Attorney Office and spoke with A.D.A. White who decline charges at this time. I provided both parties with blue form and case numbers for their records. The suspect left the scene for today without incident.”
At the end of the section, the officer wrote: “no crime occurred, no threats, no assault, only verbal.”
A spokesman for the DA’s office emailed the following statement about the intake report to KPRC 2 Investigates:
“Our senior-most prosecutor, Jim Leitner, declined a misdemeanor charge of terroristic threat regarding an Oct. 19 incident when Houston Police said they did not believe the witnesses and did not believe a crime occurred. Please note that with the attached document. Jim Leitner, our senior-most prosecutor, documented this interaction. He told the officers, I’ll take a charge of terroristic threat if you believe the persons. The officers said they did not believe the persons, and therefore the charge was not accepted.”
After this story was published, Dan Schiller, spokesman for the DA’s office, issued this second statement:
“The only person responsible for this horrible crime is the killer himself and any attempt to blame prosecutors is sadly political and not factual; the record speaks for itself; the officers in these cases didn’t believe that a crime had occurred and that left no evidence on which to base any charges.”
Houston police Chief Art Acevedo did quickly reference charges not being taken by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office during Tuesday’s news conference announcing the death of Sgt. Harold Preston. He did not dive into the facts surrounding the situation and the lack of charges.
KPRC 2 Investigates will have more on the document showing HPD did not believe an offense occurred as well as more on the suspect Elmer Manzano on KPRC 2 News at 4, 5 and 6.
This developing story will be updated.
