Campus Shooter Kills Police Officer at Texas Tech: Your Texas Roundup

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I can’t sugarcoat it, I am devastated. All I want to do is be out there on that field for my teammates and this city. I’m sorry.”

—J.J. Watt in a tweet on Monday. The Houston Texans star suffered a season-ending injury during Sunday’s game.

BIG NEWS

Police crime scene tape on July 7, 2016 in Falcon Heights, Minnesota.Stephen Maturen/Getty

Another Shooting
A nineteen-year-old student at Texas Tech allegedly shot and killed a university police officer on campus Monday night, according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Details are still emerging, but here’s what we know so far: police were performing a wellness check on Hollis Daniels, a freshman from Seguin, at his campus residence. When officers entered his room, they found evidence of drugs and drug paraphernalia, according to a statement from police. When Daniels was brought into the police department for questioning, he reportedly pulled a gun and fatally shot an officer in the head before fleeing on foot. It’s unclear whether Daniels had the weapon on him when he was taken into custody or how he got it (as a public university, licensed holders may carry a gun on Texas Tech’s campus, but they must be at least 21 years old). The university issued a campus-wide emergency alert shortly before 8:30 p.m., and the campus went on lockdown as police searched for the suspect. They arrested Daniels about an hour later. “A Texas Tech Officer was able to tackle the suspect as he fled & took him into custody, LPD officers were close behind & assisted,” a statement from the Lubbock Police Department said. The name of the deceased officer has not yet been released.

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS

Champagne ‘Stros
The Houston Astros are headed to the American League Championship Series for the first time in franchise history, according to the Houston Chronicle. In a come-from-behind 5-4 win, they defeated the Boston Red Sox on the road Monday afternoon. The franchise spent its first half-century in the National League before switching over to the AL in 2012, so this is the first time we’ve seen Houston advance so far in this half of the bracket. It’s also the first time the Astros have made it to the league championship round since 2005, when they eventually lost the World Series. In Boston, the Astros were down 3-2 entering the eighth inning when Alex Bregman smacked a solo home-run off of Chris Sale, the AL’s best pitcher. After two more Astros got on base, Josh Reddick singled in a run off of elite Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel to give Houston the lead, which they’d hold on to for the rest of the game. They’ll play the winners of Wednesday’s Game 5 American League Division Series matchup between the Cleveland Indians and the New York Yankees.

Mad Props
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones received a shout-out from President Donald Trump on Monday night following his promise to bench any player who is “disrespectful to the flag,” according to the Dallas Morning News. “A big salute to Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, who will BENCH players who disrespect our Flag,” Trump tweeted on Monday night. “‘Stand for Anthem or sit for game!'” Jones told reporters after Sunday’s game that if any Cowboys player “is disrespectful to the flag,” then he won’t play. “If we are disrespecting the flag then we won’t play. Period,” Jones said. “We’re going to respect the flag, and I’m going to create the perception of it. And we have.” Trump said last month that he’d love to see NFL owners fire players for protesting police brutality and racial inequality by kneeling during the national anthem, saying he’d “love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say ‘get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he’s fired.'” Trump’s comments spurred more protests across the league. Two Cowboys players raised their fists following the anthem on Sunday.

Bad Day
A recently unveiled statue on Tigua tribal land in El Paso was vandalized with red paint and a cross with “Columbus Day” written on it on Monday, according to the El Paso Times. The twelve-foot bronze sculpture depicts a woman named Nestora Granillo Piarote, a well-known potter born and raised on Ysleta del Sur land, who reportedly has over 800 descendants. The FBI sent agents from its Civil Rights Squad to the scene and is working with the El Paso Police Department to investigate the crime. It’s unclear what motivated the vandalism. Columbus Day is often criticized as a federal holiday honoring a man who introduced European colonialism to North America and enslaved or killed many Native Americans, and it’s been a contentious issue for years. There’s no apparent historical link between Columbus and Piarote, though, so the vandalism is particularly hard to fathom. “Some of the elders saw it and they were crying,” Jose Sierra Senior, the cacique, or leader, of the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, told the Times. “I don’t understand. I guess we live in a different world. It’s like everybody is just getting angry at people.”