A man was being held Saturday by law-enforcement authorities in Houston after he allegedly shot and killed a Harris County sheriff's deputy as the officer refueled his police cruiser at a gas station Friday night, according to CNN.
Deputy Darren Goforth, who had 10 years’ service with the sheriff's office, was shot multiple times from behind and died at the scene, the report says. The gunman walked up behind him and opened fire for no apparent reason, Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman said, according to CNN.
When Goforth fell, the gunman stood over him and shot him some more, authorities said. He died at the scene.
“He was literally gunned down in what appears to be an unprovoked, execution-style killing,” Hickman said, CNN reports. “I have been in law enforcement for 45 years; I have never seen anything this cold-blooded.”
The gunman fled the scene in a red Ford Ranger. No motive for the attack is known.
Hours after the shooting, police converged on a home outside Houston at 2:30 a.m. and took into custody a person of interest, ABC 13 reports. The television news station reports that the man was taken from his mother’s house and his mother said, “My son is innocent. I was in the house with him, so when that happened, my son was home.”
The report notes that officers had described the suspect only as a dark-complexioned man about 5 feet 11 inches tall. He had short hair, possibly a fade cut, and was wearing a white T-shirt and red shorts at the time of the shooting.
The killing “strikes us all at the heart of public service,” Hickman said at the news conference.