COMMAND Newsletter — October 2026

Van Zandt County Deputies assisting Canton Police were serving felony arrest warrants for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated assault on a peace officer at a home in the 4300 block of State Highway 198 south of Canton around 10:22 p.m. on Oct. 20 when Mi Van Nguyen, 42, opened fire from inside with a semi-automatic rifle; Sheriff Kevin Bridger said he fired more than 800 rounds. Deputy Adam Sherifi was killed at the scene and Canton Officer Chris Watson was shot in the arm; Deputy Brandon Fontenot began lifesaving aid on Officer Watson and returned fire so other Officers could reach the wounded. Nguyen was found dead inside the home, and as of Oct. 28 the Texas Rangers had not determined whether he was struck by return fire or died by his own hand. Officer Watson is recovering after surgery to remove the bullet from his arm, and Deputy Sherifi was buried Oct. 28 after a 64-mile procession through Canton.

Four SAPD covert Officers following Jacob Luna, 31, on a felony narcotics warrant were trailing him to confirm his identity before uniformed Officers made the arrest when, Chief Jesse Salame said, Luna realized he was being followed and fired a handgun from his vehicle the evening of Oct. 25; the Officers returned fire. Luna fled, caused several collisions on Horal Street and crashed into a tree near Horal and Marbach Road, then ran and collapsed in a nearby parking lot; he was shot multiple times but is expected to survive and is charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a controlled substance. A nearby vehicle's rear window was shot out but no bystanders were hurt, and Officer A. Espinoza, Det. S. Elderkin, Officer J. Torres-Rosado and Det. A. Vargas are on administrative duty while Homicide and Internal Affairs investigate.

On Oct. 27, Fayette County Deputies, Texas Rangers and a regional Special Response Team of tactical Officers from Fayette, Austin and Colorado counties surrounded St. Martin's Catholic Church on State Highway 237 near Round Top, where Djone Reeves, 56, of Houston, wanted for questioning in the Oct. 22 shooting death of Round Top antique dealer Arik Lerner, 59, had forced a rideshare driver at gunpoint to bring him from Houston. The driver was released unharmed. After several hours of negotiations Reeves died by suicide; court records show he had served time for a 1987 attempted murder of a police officer in Galveston County and a 60-year Collin County drug sentence.

About 9:10 a.m. on Oct. 29, Edinburg Officer Salvador Garcia, 40, a four-year veteran, was struck multiple times by pistol and rifle fire as he approached an apartment in the 200 block of Fig Street on a domestic-disturbance call in which a woman reported her brother acting erratically. Other responding Officers took fire while dragging him to cover and starting treatment, and the gunman's sister, Clarissa Rodriguez, 21, ran into the line of fire to help apply a tourniquet. The shooter, Daby Tadeo Ledezma, 25, who had an outstanding probation-violation warrant, was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound once the firing stopped; Officer Garcia was upgraded to stable after surgery, and the Texas Rangers lead the investigation with the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office and DPS assisting.

Dontrail Raymon Holmes, 25, out on bail for a May robbery, confronted an estranged partner at gunpoint, fled with their infant son, and was located through tips at a home on Princess Garden Way near West Orem in the City Park area on Oct. 5. Harris County Sheriff's Office SWAT and Precinct 7 Constable Deputies held the house for hours while negotiators worked; FOX 26 reports officials heard a gunshot they believed Holmes fired and Officers then entered, while KPRC reports he gave up around 8:45 p.m. The infant was recovered unharmed and checked by EMS, Holmes was uninjured, and he is charged with aggravated kidnapping, unlawful carrying of a weapon, violating a protective order and aggravated assault of a family member.

Lake Worth Officers answering a welfare call about 11:33 a.m. found Anthony Danenza Jr., 40, in his front yard in the 4200 block of Canyon Trail; he went inside, armed himself with a handgun and barricaded, then walked in and out of the house firing toward Officers during negotiations. One round shattered a vehicle window and another struck an upstairs window of a neighboring home, which was evacuated; Fort Worth Police SWAT, the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office, Lakeside and Saginaw assisted on the perimeter. SWAT deployed tear gas and took Danenza into custody without further incident; no Officers or residents were hurt, and he is charged with nine counts of aggravated assault on a peace officer and four counts of deadly conduct.

About 1 a.m. on Oct. 27, Alexander Uriel Valadez, 22, allegedly drew a gun and threatened his brother during an argument at a home in the 1300 block of Cherry Lane in Crosby; the brother left and called 911. Valadez refused to communicate with Deputies and barricaded himself in a house trailer with his two younger brothers, ages 6 and 9. SWAT and hostage negotiators responded, and when negotiations stalled SWAT entered because of the children's ages, secured both boys unharmed and took Valadez into custody on a charge of aggravated assault on a family member.

Dallas Officers used Flock camera data to locate Raul Casas, 41, wanted on several felony warrants including domestic violence, narcotics and evading arrest, at the Mustang Inn in the 400 block of South R.L. Thornton Freeway on the afternoon of Oct. 14. Casas came out of a room holding a long gun and ignored commands to put it down; Officers fired and he went down, dropped a handgun, then picked it up and shot himself seconds later while an Officer continued giving commands. No Officers were hurt. DPD released body-camera video on Oct. 16 and said the case remains under investigation; it was the department's 11th officer-involved shooting of the year.

Lewisville Police say Pedro Antonio Gil Rodriguez shot a woman he was in a domestic relationship with early on Oct. 7 in the 100 block of Eastwood Place, then barricaded himself inside a residence in the 200 block of Ridgeway Circle about a mile east. The victim was hospitalized while the department's SWAT team contained the second address. The suspect surrendered just after 9 a.m. without further incident, was medically evaluated, and was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

A delivery driver dropping a package in the 2400 block of Presley Street near East Crosstimbers about 11:44 a.m. on Oct. 4 reported a man pointed a gun at her and fired; she was not hit, but rounds struck her vehicle and flattened a front tire. HPD set a perimeter on the house where the suspect was believed to be and called SWAT, but when the team made entry the house was empty, and Lt. Chris Kelly said the suspect was believed to have broken the perimeter. The suspect, described only as a Hispanic man in his mid-to-late 50s, remained at large with no charges filed as of the Oct. 5 update.

Austin Police responded to a Gatehouse Drive home after a man reported his wife had struck him and left in a vehicle believed to contain a gun. Officers tried to stop the vehicle on Dessau Road; she fled, stopped in the 8100 block of Cameron Road near Rutherford Lane about 3:47 p.m. and refused commands for more than an hour while Officers negotiated. SWAT took over, used what APD called multiple tools to gain compliance, and took Betty Guillen, 49, into custody around 6:30 p.m.; a gun was recovered from the vehicle, she was evaluated at a hospital, and she was booked into the Travis County Jail on assault causing bodily injury to a family member, evading arrest with a vehicle and resisting arrest.

Waxahachie Police were assisting the Ellis County Sheriff's Office in serving an active warrant in the 100 block of Rusty Lane at about 10:59 a.m. when an Officer's firearm discharged; the department says it believes the discharge was accidental. The person struck was taken to a medical facility with a non-life-threatening injury. The Officer was placed on administrative leave, WPD opened an internal investigation and asked the Texas Rangers to conduct a separate investigation, and the department says it will review related policies.

El Paso Police answered a domestic disturbance in the 7500 block of Plaza Taurina Drive in Northwest El Paso about 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 19 and found a man in his 40s had secured himself inside a shed on the property; Police believed no one else was in the home. SWAT and the Crisis Intervention Team responded, nearby streets were closed, and a nearby school was told there was no threat. The man was in custody by about 11:20 a.m. with no injuries reported.

After APD's Child Exploitation Unit obtained an arrest warrant on Oct. 20 for Avery Joseph Fontana, 26, members of the U.S. Marshals-led Lone Star Fugitive Task Force attempted the arrest at his apartment. Police say Fontana barricaded himself inside after Officers made contact and tried to destroy electronic devices by running them in a microwave; Officers intervened to stop the destruction and a potential fire and took him into custody. Detectives then executed a search warrant and seized devices; he is charged with first-degree felony possession of child pornography and third-degree tampering with evidence.

Ropati Tauiliili, 48, wounded his sister at the family home on Club Crest Way on Oct. 3, then fired on responding Henderson Officers, an LVMPD air unit, drones, bystanders and nearby structures from a cul-de-sac inside a cemetery in the 6000 block of South Eastern Avenue with a 9 mm pistol and a 5.56 rifle, telling an acquaintance he would make police kill him. Henderson police say he fired more than 130 rounds over roughly an hour (134 casings were recovered; some outlets report more than 200 rifle casings, and about 80 rifle cartridges and a drum magazine were also found at the house) before SWAT Officers Julian Diaz and Thomas Whitney fired simultaneously and killed him. No Officers or bystanders were hurt; body-camera and air-unit video was released Oct. 8 and both Officers remain on paid administrative leave.

Calhoun County Sheriff's Office Deputies and the multi-agency Special Response Team went to a Running Deer Ridge home in Leroy Township around 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 26 to serve a search warrant and a firearms-related probation-violation warrant on Travis Baker, 35, after his parents reported he had assaulted them and was shooting at animals. When the SRT attempted entry, gunfire came from inside; rounds struck police vehicles, Baker shot down two sheriff's drones, and a Battle Creek Police Officer returned fire from an armored vehicle as it approached to open the front door for a drone or robot. A fast-moving fire then consumed the house and Baker was found dead; Michigan State Police are investigating the shooting and the fire, and the cause of death has not been released.

Oxford police were called about 3:45 a.m. on Oct. 29 to a South College Avenue apartment a few blocks from Miami University, where a domestic dispute had become a hostage situation and Officers heard gunshots inside. While negotiators kept the man on the phone, Butler County Regional SWAT operators executed a coordinated rescue and freed the woman, who was reunited with her family. Two gunshots followed from the suspect's location; SWAT entered and found him dead of an apparent self-inflicted wound, and police said no law enforcement personnel fired.

Late on Oct. 15, Darryl Barnes, 30, barricaded in a second-floor room at the Studio 6 Suites on Phillips Lane after a shots-fired domestic call; after about 35 minutes of PA and spotlight commands a woman ran out with her hands up, and Barnes opened fire from the doorway, striking at least one cruiser. Officers Richard Waller, Treyton Brown and Jackson Evans returned rifle fire from behind a civilian truck in a roughly 15-second exchange, then heard a muffled shot inside; Officers made an explosive breach about 1:15 a.m. on Oct. 16 and flew a drone into the room, finding Barnes dead. LMPD released body-camera, surveillance and drone footage on Oct. 28 and says Barnes had one torso wound from Officers' fire and a self-inflicted head wound; the coroner's cause and manner remain pending and the three Officers are on administrative leave.

A U.S. Marshals-led Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force, assisted by Cuyahoga County SWAT, tried to arrest Ke'Yon Sanchez Moore, 20, at a home in the 3500 block of East 120th Street around 8 a.m. on Oct. 13; he refused to surrender, and over roughly four to five hours Officers used chemical agents, robots and drones while Moore fired multiple rounds at the robots and toward Officers on two occasions. About 1 p.m. another shot was heard inside and Moore was found dead of a self-inflicted wound; no Officers or civilians were hurt. The Marshals later disclosed he was wanted not only for a Sept. 20 gunpoint carjacking but on a murder warrant for the Oct. 3 killing of Shi'Anne Massey, 23, the woman he had been indicted for strangling in September.

On the night of Oct. 10 Pueblo Officers pursued an armed home-invasion suspect, Luis Antonio Morales, 36, to an upstairs apartment, knocked and identified themselves; gunfire broke out when he opened the door and he was killed. Officer Jonathon Woehler was shot in both legs and Officer Justin Ortiz took a graze wound to the ankle. On Oct. 16 the 10th Judicial District Critical Incident Response Team determined both Officers' wounds came from fellow Pueblo Officers' gunfire; Chief Chris Noeller said the review will examine tactics, positioning, communication and decision-making and drive changes to training, equipment and procedures.

Eugene police were called about 7:25 a.m. on Oct. 18 after a neighbor reported a stranger inside a Glory Drive home whose owner was out of town; the man, armed with a knife, refused to leave, and negotiators spoke with him by phone for several hours while a fire alarm inside drew the fire department. The Oregon State Police SWAT team and a K-9 unit assisted and an arrest warrant was obtained. At 1:04 p.m., after the suspect stabbed the K-9, SWAT members fired and wounded him; he was hospitalized with injuries believed non-life-threatening, the dog's injuries were superficial, and the county's Interagency Deadly Force Investigation Team is investigating.

Detroit police tracked a 50-year-old man to his home on Griggs Street on Oct. 27 after he brandished a weapon and set his dog on a gas station manager and clerk on East Warren Avenue earlier that morning. Police declared a barricaded-gunman situation and brought in SWAT, negotiators and mental-health response teams; Chief Todd Bettison said the man fired shots during the hours-long standoff and would not cooperate. About 3:26 p.m. he came out the back door carrying weapons and pointed an assault-style rifle at Officers, who shot and killed him; no Officers were hurt, and family indicated he may have been in a mental-health crisis.

Officers answering a 1:40 a.m. report of two gunshots inside a Gardenia Avenue home in the Cal Heights neighborhood were threatened by a man barricaded inside, pulled back and requested SWAT. The gunman then fired on the Officers and one Officer returned fire. SWAT eventually breached the house and found two men dead of gunshot wounds to the upper body; no Officers were hurt, and detectives are working to determine whether either fatal round came from the Officer's gun.

Deputy Sheriff Adam Sherifi was shot and killed on October 20, 2026, while assisting Canton Police Officers serving outstanding warrants for aggravated assault and aggravated assault on a peace officer at a home in the 4300 block of State Highway 198 in Van Zandt County. Around 10:22 p.m., shots were fired from the home toward the Officers outside and gunfire was exchanged; Deputy Sherifi was mortally wounded and died at the scene, and a Canton Police Officer was also wounded and transported to a local hospital. The suspect was found deceased inside the home. Deputy Sherifi served in law enforcement for eight years, with the Van Zandt County Sheriff's Office and previously the Hawk Cove, West Tawakoni and Caddo Mills Police Departments. He is survived by his wife and three children.

In January 2018 kidnappers bound Ulises Valladares with duct tape and moved him to a Houston house; an FBI SWAT team attempted a rescue, and as Agent Jeffrey Hawkins ported a window with a Halligan tool and dropped it inside, Agent Gavin Lappe fired at a silhouette that appeared in the window, killing the blindfolded, bound hostage. After a three-day bench trial the district court found the Government liable under the Federal Tort Claims Act, held the discretionary-function exception did not apply, and awarded $1,915,000 in damages. Judge Stewart (joined by Judge Higginson; No. 25-20180; published) affirmed liability: the trial court did not clearly err in crediting the eyewitness in the room over the agents' accounts that the hostage leaned out, took a shooting stance or grabbed a weapon, or in finding Agent Lappe fired before identifying his target and without a threat to either agent. The panel reversed only the amended damages figure, directing that attorney's fees be carved out of the original award under 28 U.S.C. § 2678. Judge Ho dissented, arguing the agent reasonably perceived an imminent threat and the discretionary-function exception should bar suit. This is an FTCA negligence judgment against the United States, not a § 1983 or Bivens ruling; the agent's own qualified immunity was resolved in his favor in 2021 and was not before the court.

On October 6, 2021, Hidalgo County Deputies Juan Flores and Brian Ayala responded to a Weslaco domestic-violence call about Guillermo Sanchez, a mentally ill man off his medication who had punched his mother and locked her out; after Sanchez shattered a window and began breaking furniture, a woman's voice on body camera shouted in Spanish to break down the door, Deputy Ayala answered "sí," and the Deputies forced entry, found Sanchez holding an 8-inch kitchen knife, gave repeated commands to drop it, and fired eleven rounds when he opened his bedroom door and walked toward them with the knife. The district court granted summary judgment on the § 1983 warrantless-entry, warrantless-arrest and excessive-force claims and on the Texas Tort Claims Act claim. A per curiam panel (Judges King, Smith and Ramirez; No. 25-40464; unpublished) affirmed on the first prong: the mother, as a co-resident, had common authority to consent and the plaintiffs offered no evidence anyone else shouted the words; Texas Code of Criminal Procedure art. 14.03(a)(4) plus her visible injuries supplied probable cause for a warrantless family-violence arrest; and under Elizondo v. Green and Plumhoff v. Rickard the deadly force and the number of shots were objectively reasonable, with no duty to retreat or try less-lethal options first given the debris-strewn room and the suddenness of the approach. The court did not reach exigent circumstances because consent sufficed, called the Deputies' possible noncompliance with the county's barricade policy "concerning" but held it did not change the constitutional result, and held the TTCA claim failed because excessive force sounds in intentional tort. Unpublished, so non-precedential.

Bryan Police Officers investigating a fatal park shooting on September 8, 2017 used an emergency phone ping to locate a wounded 16-year-old at an apartment where Saul Suarez, then 18, lived with his mother, Sylvia Sanchez; she told Officers it was her home and that she and her kids lived there, gave verbal consent and signed a written consent form for the whole apartment, and Officers recovered a shotgun, a Glock pistol, ammunition, bloody clothing and a phone from Suarez's bedroom while the detective still considered him only a witness. The trial court suppressed the evidence, finding Sanchez had neither actual nor apparent authority over the room because she testified her son's room was off-limits, and the Waco Court of Appeals affirmed. In an opinion by Judge Richardson joined by seven judges (Judge Keel concurring; No. PD-0866-24; published), the Court of Criminal Appeals reversed, holding that under the totality of the circumstances a reasonable officer could have believed the mother had common authority over her child's bedroom, that officers may rely on that parent-child presumption unless confronted with facts suggesting otherwise, and that the detective's follow-up question confirming it was her home plus the signed form were sufficient. The court cautioned it was not holding a parent can always consent to a search of an adult child's room; the case was remanded for trial. The emergency ping and the initial entry were not contested on appeal.

At 2:14 a.m. on October 24, 2021, El Paso Officer Steven Jaso responded to a family-violence call reporting that Armando Navejas, 70, who had dementia and Alzheimer's, had tried to strangle his wife; surveillance video showed Navejas ignoring commands and throwing at least two objects at Officer Jaso, one of which struck him in the shin, before Jaso tased him once in the back, and Navejas fell, was knocked unconscious, and later died. The district court granted summary judgment to Jaso on qualified immunity and to the City on all five Monell theories. Judge Duncan (joined by Judges Jones and Southwick; No. 25-51061; published) affirmed solely on the clearly-established prong: assuming for argument that the tasing violated the Fourth Amendment, Hanks v. Rogers, Newman v. Guedry and Ramirez v. Martinez involved non-resisting or already-restrained subjects and did not squarely govern a single taser deployment on an uncontrolled, actively resisting suspect. The court expressly did not decide whether the tasing was unconstitutional; on the municipal claims it held that two later EPPD incidents could not establish a pre-existing pattern and that the overnight gap in Crisis Intervention Team coverage was a resource decision rather than deliberate indifference. Officer Jaso's documented use-of-force and mental-health training hours were what defeated the failure-to-train theory.

At about 5:00 a.m. on October 18, 2017, an FBI SWAT team led by Special Agent Lawrence Guerra breached the door of Curtrina Martin and Hilliard Cliatt's Atlanta home, detonated a flash-bang and handcuffed Cliatt before realizing the warrant target lived three houses away on a different street; Agent Guerra blamed his personal GPS unit, which he later discarded. The Supreme Court vacated the Eleventh Circuit's first affirmance in 2025 (Martin v. United States, 605 U.S. 395) and remanded. On remand a per curiam panel (Judges Jordan, Jill Pryor and Kidd; No. 23-10062; published) held the FTCA claims barred by the discretionary-function exception under circuit precedent, but reversed qualified immunity: viewing the disputed evidence about whether Guerra conducted any site survey or day-of drive-by in the plaintiffs' favor, and citing undisputed differences between the two houses, it held a jury could find he failed to make reasonable efforts to identify the right house, a violation clearly established since Hartsfield v. Lemacks (11th Cir. 1995). The court did not find that Guerra violated the Constitution, which is for a jury, and Judge Jordan concurred separately to urge en banc reconsideration of the circuit's discretionary-function doctrine for wrong-house raids. Not binding in Texas, but it spells out what a court expects of the team leader on address verification.