Suspected Illegal Immigrants Nabbed After Wild Shootout In Houston
Two men were known to have been wounded and at least 21 suspected illegal immigrants were taken into custody today after a wild shootout in a southwest Houston neighborhood. Houston police and federal immigration agents were still combing the neighborhood – in and near the Larkwood subdivision – searching for others who fled after the gunfire erupted in the 9000 block of Sandpiper about 9 a.m. The shooting occurred in and near a house that appears to have been used as a "drop house," where smugglers are believed to have held illegal immigrants until relatives could pay their smuggling fees.

One of the wounded men, who appeared to have been shot several times, was found inside the house at 9011 Sandpiper and was undergoing surgery at Memorial Hermann Hospital. The other wounded man, who was shot in the foot, was taken to Ben Taub General Hospital. Witnesses said another man was wounded during the gunbattle, but others carried him to a van and he was driven away. Authorities were still searching for the van. Witnesses told Houston police they heard gunshots and saw some men running around inside the house. Police said at least six men ran out the back, jumped over a fence and ran several blocks along concrete-lined Bintliff Ditch, but officers caught them.

Police found a Chinese version of an AK-47 assault rifle inside the house. Luisa Deason, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said agents suspect that the address was used as a drop house because it has no furniture, the windows are boarded up and the house is littered with fast-food wrappers and other trash. Authorities suspect that the gunbattle may have occurred as one or more "coyotes," or immigrant smugglers, tried to steal illegal immigrants from another coyote so they could collect the smuggling fees. At least some of those taken into custody are from El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala, Deason said. Patricia Demerson, 35, said she was at home with her son when she heard gunshots and looked out her kitchen window at the house across the street. Demerson, who works as a prison guard, said she saw men running to a Lincoln Navigator in the driveway as the gunfire continued. One man fell, but other men picked him up and put him in the Navigator, she said.

A short time later, Demerson said, a black pickup drove up and more gunfire erupted as another man ran from the house, jumped into the truck and it drove away. Neighbors said they had thought that two men and a woman had moved into the house recently. "I was really scared to know there was a shootout right across the street," Demerson said. "They just moved in a couple of weeks ago. I hope this is it. I'm not sure if there are gangs or drugs or what."