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"July 19, 2005, 1:26PM

Officer shoots car-burglary suspect outside his home
By S.K. BARDWELL
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

A suspected car burglar is in very critical condition this morning after breaking into an SUV near an off-duty Houston police officer's home.

Police are searching for two accomplices, one of whom may also be wounded, in a light-colored minivan with both its back windows shot out. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 713-308-3600.

The incident unfolded outside the house of 11-year Houston Police Department officer Noe Hernandez, who shares the house with his brother, also an HPD officer, in the 11700 block of Biscayne Way. The brothers' father lives across the street.

HPD Sgt. David Crain said Hernandez was awakened about 4:30 a.m. by the barking of a dog that belongs to him and his brother but lives in their father's fenced yard. Crain said Hernandez looked outside to see a van parked in the street in front of his house and three suspects breaking into the Ford Expedition in the driveway of the home next to his father's house.

Hernandez donned his raid vest, which is marked "police," retrieved his firearm and went outside to confront the three, who began trying to get into their van, Crain said.

As Hernandez ordered the driver of the van to stop and show his hands, the driver pointed a pistol out the window at Hernandez, who opened fire, Crain said.

Hernandez's father, also awakened by the commotion, fired on the van with a shotgun, and Crain said the van sped away, leaving one wounded suspect behind on the ground. He was rushed to Ben Taub Hospital.

Hernandez and his father told investigators the van was weaving erratically as it left, and only went a half-block before it stopped. Crain said the passenger got out, ran around to the driver's side and, pushing the driver farther into the van, jumped in and drove away.

Police are searching for the van and the two suspects who fled, and monitoring area hospitals for the driver they believe is wounded, Crain said.

Neither Hernandez nor his father was injured. The shooting is under investigation by the homicide and internal affairs division of HPD and by the police integrity division of the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

The wounded suspect or suspects got little sympathy today from some in the northeast Houston neighborhood where the shooting happened.

"They must not be from around here," said Sarah Dugger, who lives nearby on Bannister. "Everyone around here knows cops live there, and we like it."

"I'm sorry if they got hurt," Douglas Brown conceded of the suspects, "but maybe it'll stop some of them."

Brown, who lives on Rittenhouse, said his pickup truck was burglarized last year by thieves who took his stereo, CDs and the tool he uses to make his living in construction work.

"People ought to be able to own a few things without being afraid to go to sleep at night for fear they'll lose them," Brown said.

Mary Gutierrez, who lives nearby on O'Donnell, said she was already awake when she "heard all the pops." When she heard sirens converging on the area a few minutes later, Gutierrez said, "I got me a cup and came down to see.

Gutierrez said she has not been victimized in the three years she has lived on nearby O'Donnell, but a neighbor's car had been broken into a couple of years ago.

"It's getting to where you can't have nothing without some (thief) trying to take it away from you," Gutierrez said."