A Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputy is on medical leave after shooting himself in the chest Thursday night while at his home in a suburb northwest of Houston, according to authorities who responded to the incident.
The deputy remained hospitalized in stable condition as of early Friday afternoon, according to Senior Deputy Thomas M. Gilliland of the sheriff’s office. The injured man’s name and age have not been released by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office or the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, which responded to the shooting and said it is investigating the circumstances surrounding it.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that it conducted a welfare check in the 22000 block of Linden Lane in Magnolia at approximately 7:15 p.m. Thursday. The man there who sustained a gunshot wound to the chest had called emergency services to report the incident, according to the sheriff’s office in Montgomery County, which said he was transported to a local hospital after law enforcement and emergency personnel arrived at the home.
“Further investigation has revealed the male was an off-duty Harris County Sheriff's Office Deputy who accidentally shot himself while in his home,” the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said in its news release.
Gilliland of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said the deputy is assigned to its District 1 patrol, which includes the Klein, Spring and Tomball areas in the northern part of the county, and is responsible for handling calls for service in that geographic area. The deputy is on medical leave in the aftermath of the shooting incident, Gilliland said.
Gilliland also said his department’s Office of the Inspector General will review the shooting incident “to see if policy or procedures were followed.”
It wasn’t immediately known what type of gun was used in the incident and if it was an issued firearm or a personal weapon, as officials in both departments declined to get into specifics.