Brownsville school police fire at 'stolen' car, arrest three
Aug. 16—Three men, one of them a juvenile, were in custody Tuesday morning after Brownsville Independent School District police officer fired shots at a car that was driving recklessly in a parking lot at Porter Early College High School, city and school district police said.
The incident occurred around 9 a.m. No one was injured, the event occurred only in the parking lot outside Porter and students and staff were never in any danger, BISD Police Chief Oscar said at a late morning news conference.
It later turned out the vehicle had been stolen overnight, and police pursued it to a location near Roosevelt Street and McDavitt Boulevard, where the three were arrested, Garcia said.
He and Brownsville Police Chief Felix Sauceda credited a collaborative relationship between the two departments with defusing a situation that could have become more serious.
Porter was immediately placed under lockdown, Superintendent René Gutiérrez said, crediting BISD and city police for quick action.
"The safety and security of our students there at Porter was never compromised. ... Our officers are well trained and this training came into practice today. ... I'm thankful that everything we have done to keep our students and staff safe was in practice today."
Garcia said the situation is fluid and remains under investigation.
"I want to reiterate to our school community that our students are safe," Garcia said. "They are safe at school. Our parents need to know that we have police presence, we've always had them at our schools. ... Our students are fine, this is the first day of class and they are doing very well. We are safe."
Brownsville Police Chief Felix Sauceda said it was unfortunate that the school year had to begin this way but that training had paid off.
"We've learned so much in the recent months with tragedies that have happened not only in Texas but across the nation, and we took those lessons and we put them into practice," he said. "This today brings about the collaborative effort, what collectively we have been able to achieve, the response, the safety of not only our students but our public is paramount to us, as you can see from those standing behind us, from our city officials to our county district attorney."
Sauceda said officials were happy "to be able to report this level of response. We're not going to replay this tomorrow, but we do have a certain level of preparedness for these types of events."
Sauceda said officials would keep the public abreast of developments as they become known.
