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A San Benito police officer responding to a pursuit was shot and killed overnight Tuesday.
City officials have not identified the officer and have yet to provide additional details about the shooting death.
Around 11 p.m., however, several residents and at least one city official took to social media about the shooting, with San Benito native and former Rio Hondo school board member Jessica Alvarado Gonzales saying she heard shots fired while driving home and was told by a state trooper that local agencies were pursuing an armed suspect.
Gonzales was on her way home from Harlingen when she approached Sam Houston Boulevard and saw police activity ahead of her. She was attempting to cross the intersection with 77 Sunshine Strip to continue on Sam Houston but the road ahead was closed, and in front of her were other motorists who exited their vehicles to take video or see what was going on.
At that moment, Gonzales said she heard what sounded like gunfire.
“I had called home to make sure everybody was OK because I at first thought it was an accident, but when I’m on Sam Houston by the railroad tracks and bank, I see a bunch of cop cars and lights, and I get really close at the intersection at Stripes and was blocked in,” she said Wednesday morning. “I don’t know what’s going on. I see an officer standing outside his car doing something and I just heard the gunshots, and I’m trapped here and can’t leave. People weren’t moving; they were taking video. Two people were standing right there in front of Stripes taking video and nobody was moving or doing anything, so I was just trapped there, right there in front of the intersection.”
She said that as the cars started to move out of the way, she came upon a state trooper pumping gas who, when asked, informed her that authorities were in pursuit of someone shooting a weapon.
“While I was talking to the officer, I see these units cross because they were coming from everywhere. The Brownsville direction, on 77 from Harlingen, from the expressway, from Rio Hondo and Los Fresnos — all these police cars from everywhere were just showing up in all different directions,” Gonzales recalled. “As I look over there to see what’s happening, I see a Border Patrol truck get on a median, and everyone is trying to get there around AutoZone on Sam Houston Boulevard, which is where I think the shooting happened.”
City Commissioner Carol Lynn Sanchez has shared two mournful comments following the shooting, one stating, “Prayers to our SBPD and every agency involved in tonight’s events. Especially to every officer who may need extra prayers to overcome this ordeal physically and mentally! You’re in our prayers…”
San Benito city officials will be holding a news conference at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday to release more details.
The officer’s death is the fifth law enforcement officer to be killed in the line of duty in the Rio Grande Valley since 2019.
Here’s the latest update:
