Houston Homeowner Shoots and Kills Two Men in Ski Masks Dressed as Police
BY Herschel Smith
1 month, 3 weeks ago
Houston police — the real ones — are investigating a lethal home defense shooting that took place late Friday night in the southeast part of the city. Two men knocked on a homeowner’s door claiming they were police officers and were there to serve a warrant. To his credit, the homeowner didn’t just open the door. As KHOU reports . . .
“[The homeowner] became suspicious, because, you know, they have a ring camera too, and the suspects were saying they had a warrant, but it was just two people and they’re masked up and no police cars, no lights or anything like that,” said Lt. Khan with HPD.
At some point, police said the men shot at the homeowner through the door, prompting the homeowner to return fire.
This is yet another instance of criminals posing as cops doing a no-knock SWAT raid. I’ve cataloged other such instances over these pages.
And once again to the cops reading these pages, this is why we can’t just roll over and beg for our lives because you stand at the door cursing at us and beating on the door, or because you don’t do that and you just bust in the door and point guns at us.
We MUST assume that this is a gang of criminals intent on harming our family. If you have any sense at all, you’ll understand my point.
On August 25, 2025 at 10:28 pm, Mike said:
Curious that the dead perps have not been identified. Perhaps they were cartel members or illegals of some stripe, which is inconvenient for the narrative. It is interesting that both were wearing body armor and were fatally shot through a door. It would be nice to know what the defender was armed with and where they perps were hit, but we will probably never know. Law Enforcement should take heed anyway as you say.
On August 26, 2025 at 12:12 am, Georgiaboy61 said:
Special operations – “Special Weapons and Tactics” – police units are now a half century or so old, at least in their modern form.
Back in the early days, only big cities had special ops police units, or perhaps exceptionally violent ones. Today, they have grown like topsy and even small rural counties and towns with little crime sport special weapons, tactics and gear – and men to use them.
The U.S. Dept. of Defense has for years run a program which auctions off surplus military tactical gear to LE and other agencies. Often, such equipment may be available via grants or special set-asides for pennies on the dollar or even no cost.
That’s how your favorite local sheriff ends up with an MRAP – “Mine Resistant Ambush Protected” – vehicle, or an APC (armored personnel carrier) for his department. Or for that matter, a Blackhawk helicopter, night vision/thermal vision gear, UV-VIS laser aiming devices, suppressor-equipped small arms and all of the rest of it. And cops who suddenly look like storm troopers than the peace officers of old.
In work, just as in personal life, we tend to emulate those we admire – and this effect is no less pronounced in LE circles, where the cult of special ops is a big deal. Civil liberties attorney John Whitehead has termed this “The Rise of the Warrior Cop.” Yet, police are not soldiers – and they are not supposed to be. They have very distinct missions, mindsets and training. There is some overlap between soldiering and LE, but not as much as many people believe.
Many police departments – local on up to federal – give preference to veterans, especially seeking out combat veterans. This, too, is another way by which the military ethos ends up being so common and pervasive in LE circles.
The difficulty arises in that special units – “SWAT teams” – are costly, and once these high-profile units are formed, there is pressure for them to be used, as justification for their funding. This is whether or not any actual missions occur. “Mission creep” inevitably occurs. Instead of holding them back for a barricaded hostage situation or something in line with their training/gear, the chief – or the mayor – insists that they undertake other missions.
Such as serving “high risk warrants,” to name one example. Sounds innocuous-enough, but who determines what is “high risk,” and when these teams are to be used?
As detailed in this space on previous occasions – there has been an appalling lack of responsibility, professionalism and judgment in where, when and how SWAT teams are employed.
And quite naturally, now that SWAT teams are so well-known, it is not surprising that criminals have adopted their appearance, behavior and tactics in an effort to boost their illegal enterprises.
It’s enough to make you wish for the return of Sheriff Andy Taylor and Deputy Barney Fife!
On August 26, 2025 at 6:33 am, Mike said:
@Georgiaboy
Very good points. This phenomenon, the general militarization of policing, into a deadly threat to all citizens. Wrong address no knock raids are about the worst possible situation that could arise from this, and the innocent homeowner who is subject to such a wrongful midnight attack risks death for himself for the very legitimate act of defending himself or legal jeopardy if he survives. The Police have no consequences for raiding the wrong house.
Returning to Herschel’s conclusion;
“….this is why we can’t just roll over and beg for our lives because you stand at the door cursing at us and beating on the door, or because you don’t do that and you just bust in the door and point guns at us. We MUST assume that this is a gang of criminals intent on harming our family…”
The simple solution is that “No knock” police raids must be banned under all circumstances. The home owner must be given the opportunity to be awakened and informed of the police presence and intent as a simple matter of the due process liberals seem to love so much recently. That it is a matter of life and death should suffice as a justification in the banning of this practice.
On August 26, 2025 at 8:40 am, george 1 said:
The truth is that most of the SWAT types and a good percentage of others in police forces love the chance to shoot people. It is what they live for.
On August 26, 2025 at 11:10 am, Chris said:
Mike makes a good point – it’s time to ban no knock raids. We already willingly toss evidence that is “fruit of the poisoned tree.” We do that to preserve meaning for Constitutional protections. How little would be lost if police had to announce all raids giving the recipients time to consider, and to ask to see a warrant. Worried about drugs getting flushed? Cut off the water to the house, block the sewer pipes – whatever. Given modern forensics, can all evidence really be 100% destroyed due to a couple of minutes warning? Danger to the SWAT team? Perhaps lessened due to not scaring the residents half to death. If not, well they have plenty of time to prepare, and lots of taxpayer funded protective gear. It’s a dangerous job, if those officers don’t want to risk it, they shouldn’t take the job.
On August 27, 2025 at 1:31 am, Georgiaboy61 said:
Glenn Harlan Reynolds, law professor also famous for his blog, “Instapundit,” has advocated for years for the end of – or at least the weakening of – sovereign immunity, the legal doctrine which protects police departments and other LE agencies for culpability for their misdeeds and crimes.
This is an idea worth exploring, but it won’t work unless it is also paired with regulations limiting the amount of taxpayer dollars LE agencies can access for their legal defense, or perhaps banning the use of public funds in such cases altogether.
The dilemma is that when Joe Q. Public sues the local PD for wrongful use of force, or some other alleged misdeed/crime, that dept. has serious staying power in court due to its bottomless pockets of taxpayer funded legal defense. The agency can make appeal after appeal, use delaying tactics, etc. to almost no end – because little/none of it comes out of their departmental budget. This effect is only magnified when one is at the state or federal level.
And if you really want judgments of police malpractice and criminality to hurt, they ought to impact the department in question. And even more so, if you want to send a strong message misuse of police power won’t be tolerated, go after pensions and retirement benefits of those convicted.
The status quo, unless the above analysis is serious mistaken, is that the cops rarely get charged, even more rarely get convicted, and even more infrequently pay any serious institutional or individual penalties, civil or criminal. They are – quite literally – above the law.
Case in point? Utterly without provocation, U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd shot and killed unarmed Ashley Babbett, a female USAF veteran, during the J6 demonstrations some years ago. Byrd was not only not censured or punished, Congress gave him a commendation!
The authorities can call it what they like, but Byrd literally got away with murder. Why? Because of sovereign immunity.
A similar case happened in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN some years back when Justine Damond, a forty year-old Australian-American woman, called in a 9-1-1 incident nearby. When Minneapolis-St. Paul police officer, Somali-born Muslim Mohamed Noor, responded, he spoke briefly to Damond and then without provocation, shot her to death.
Noor was charged and convicted of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, and he was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison, but was released after serving only 4 3/4th years when his original sentence was overturned upon appeal.
Damond’s family brought civil suit against the city alleging the victim’s civil rights were violated; the city settled out of court for $20 million dollars.
Noor, as it turned out, had prior complaints on his record concerning inappropriate use of force, threats against members of the public, and at least one case of assault. Yet, the department did not pull his badge and gun and relieve him of duty.
Noor lost his job as a police officer, and will probably never work as a cop again. But after less than five years in prison, he is alive and free to live his life after having killed an innocent women for no real reason other than the fact he felt like it. There is something very seriously wrong with a system that hires such a man in the first place, and even more wrong when it lets him get away with murder.
If law enforcement authorities need evidence as to why public trust in them is cratering, look no further than cases like these…
On August 27, 2025 at 4:01 am, Steve Miller said:
Ahhh sovereign immunity. Satanic filth protecting Satanic filth. Per my understanding it arose from the lawsuit stemming from the Texas City ship explosion April 16 1947. The ship SS Grandcamp contained 2300 pounds of ANFO. When it detonated the ship’s anchor flew 4 miles. 600 fatalities 3.000 injured. The criminal government but I repeat myself, investigating itself and exonerating itself. Same as it ever was.
On August 27, 2025 at 12:36 pm, Don W Curton said:
In my admittedly amateur opinion, I believe that these home invasion crimes are NOT random. In most cases they are going after a particular house where they know there will be something worth stealing – jewelry store owner who keeps some inventory at home being a common one. Or else another drug dealer with a significant stash. Outside of that, it’s one gang performing a hit on another. It’d be real interesting to see why they picked that house.
And yes, no knock raids should be illegal.
On August 28, 2025 at 10:53 pm, Longbow said:
But, but, I don’t understand… Why didn’t he just submit and comply?