HOUSTON – An investigation is underway after a woman was fatally struck by a Houston Police Department patrol vehicle on the Southwest Freeway feeder road Tuesday, officers said.
It happened in the 11600 block of the Southwest Freeway feeder road around 12:20 a.m.
According to investigators, a two-man HPD patrol unit was responding code 2, (no lights and sirens), to a double shooting. The HPD vehicle was traveling inbound on the feeder road when police said a woman, approximately in her 30′s or 40′s, stepped off the curb and into the roadway and was struck by the patrol vehicle, officers said.
The woman was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency officials. Investigators said the woman may have been homeless.
The officers weren’t injured in the incident. Both of them have been with the department for under three years, investigators said. They have reportedly been placed on administrative leave and must go through a process to get recertified to back on the road.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office’s Vehicular Crimes unit and HPD Internal Affairs are investigating the crash.
According to HPD, this is the third time in recent weeks that an officer has hit and killed a pedestrian.