Robbery suspect used employee as shield before getting shot, HPD says

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A suspected robber used an employee as a shield outside a check cashing business in north Houston, according to the Houston Police Department.

Police said it happened Monday morning at an Ace Cash Express off of West Greens Road near I-45.

“Officers responded to a hold up panic alarm, which is usually an alarm that’s used by businesses to advise us that they are being robbed,” said HPD Sgt. Luis Menendez-Sierra

HPD said the alert came in around 8:30 am.

“Our patrol officer arrived on the location approximately 4 minutes later, observed a male suspect and a female employee inside the business,” Sgt. Menendez-Sierra said.

HPD said the suspect walked out with a gun to the woman’s back and used her as a shield. Officials said an officer fired their weapon and hit the suspect multiple times.

“Once the suspect was down, our officers approached,” Sgt. Menendez-Sierra said. “He was transported to a nearby hospital with all the injuries from the gunshot wounds.”

ABC13 looked at commercial robbery crime data within a five mile radius of this business. According to HPD crime data, there’ve been 21 reported commercial robberies in the last month in the area, which is just slightly less compared to the same time last year when there were 25 commercial robberies reported.

HPD said the female employee was not injured nor were any officers.

“She was just arriving to open up the business when this suspect took advantage of that,” Sgt. Menendez-Sierra said. “She’s not armed. You know, she’s an innocent bystander in this whole situation.”

HPD has not released the name of the suspect. They said from what they can tell right now, he wasn’t able to steal anything during this robbery.