Deputy Fernando Esqueda, a detective with the Sheriff’s Office, was working a looting suppression detail in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl when he and his team responded to an assault at a Houston Little Caesar’s restaurant.
Harris County SO Chief Deputy Mike Lee said during a press conference that the incident began when a customer became enraged about an incorrect pickup order. Lee said the customer drew a gun and pistol whipped the Little Caesars employee.
Deputy Esqueda and other detectives began searching for the suspect.
Surveillance cameras at the Little Ceasar’s captured at least part of the incident, according to Lee.
One of the detectives entered the suspect’s license plate number into the county’s Flock license plate recognition system and was able to pinpoint the area where the suspect’s vehicle was most commonly seen, Lee said.
Esqueda went to the location and found the vehicle and was calling it in when he was “ambushed,” Lee said.
When other detectives arrived on scene, they found Deputy Esqueda had been shot multiple times in his vehicle.
The wounded detective was rushed to a local hospital in a police vehicle, but he died in the emergency room.
Law enforcement is searching for Ronnie Palmer, 44, who is characterized as a “person of interest” in the case.
Deputy Esqueda, 28, served with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office for five years. He was a member of the agency’s violent person’s task force, which Lee said hunts down the worst criminals in the county.