Sheriff’s Deputies Shoot Woman Inside Friend’s Home in Houston, Authorities Say

A Houston woman was shot in her friend’s apartment this month by sheriff’s deputies who responded to a report of a break-in and fired repeatedly into the home, according to a statement and body camera footage released by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

Early on Feb. 3, the woman, Eboni Pouncy, and her friend smashed a window to get inside after forgetting the house key, according to a statement released last week by the civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who is representing Ms. Pouncy.

The women were startled when, after 2 a.m., the deputies began pounding on the door, according Mr. Crump. Fearing an intruder, Ms. Pouncy picked up her legally registered firearm and, shortly after, was struck by five bullets, he said.

Emergency medical workers took Ms. Pouncy to a hospital for treatment, the sheriff’s office said. While the nature of her injuries was unclear, Mr. Crump said in his statement that she was recovering.

According to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, the two deputies responded to a report of an intruder at an apartment on the city’s east side at around 2:10 a.m. but found no one inside. Shortly afterward, a resident of a neighboring apartment told the deputies that someone had broken into another second-floor apartment, the sheriff’s office said. When deputies went to investigate the break-in, they found the front window screen removed, broken glass and the blinds raised near the front door, the sheriff’s office said.

The footage, retrieved from deputies’ body-worn cameras and released on Saturday, shows the two deputies, who appear to be women, climbing the apartment staircase, knocking on the front door and then retreating a few feet away. One of the deputies says she sees someone coming and shouts, and then both deputies begin firing repeatedly through the glass windows. Both reload their guns and continue to fire several times.

The sheriff’s office is investigating the shooting and has placed both deputies involved on administrative leave. No criminal charges have been filed. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office is also investigating the shooting, a standard practice when law enforcement officers use potentially deadly force.

Neither the sheriff’s office nor the district attorney could be immediately reached for comment on Tuesday evening.

Laronda Berry, the resident and Ms. Pouncy’s friend, said in an interview on Friday that she had told Ms. Pouncy to break the window and that they had been inside only 20 minutes when they heard “loud banging” on the door. “The only crime that was committed that day was done by the police,” she said.

Mr. Crump — who for more than two decades has been a go-to lawyer for the families of Black people killed by law enforcement officers — said the episode was reminiscent of the case of Breonna Taylor, a Black medical worker who was shot and killed by police officers in Louisville, Ky., in March 2020 during a botched raid on her apartment.

In a statement posted to social media on Monday, he said that the shooting “should have never happened, and this newly released body cam footage is evidence of the unnecessary and excessive force used against her.”

The footage, he added, proved that the deputies had “shot first and asked questions later.”