After several Houston police officers were shot during a drug raid, chief Art Acevedo doesn’t just want politicians’ thoughts and prayers anymore.
Following a sting operation in which undercover officers bought heroin from people in a residence, Houston’s narcotics unit conducted a raid on the residence on Monday. The raid ended with the two suspects dead, and five officers injured — four of them with gunshot wounds. A white substance believed to be cocaine or the deadly painkiller fentanyl was found along with marijuana after the raid, and officers also seized three shotguns and two rifles.
In the aftermath of the shooting, Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) offered their prayers, along with Houston mayor Sylvester Turner (D).
Heidi and I are praying for the five officers who were shot today, as well as their families. We will continue to follow this developing story.
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz)
Sending prayers for all the brave officers working to keep Houston safe.
— Team Cornyn (@TeamCornyn)
I’m relieved to hear that a second officer, a 25-year veteran of the force, has been released from .
Please continue to lift up the officers and their families.— Sylvester Turner (@SylvesterTurner)
While Acevedo asked the community for prayers after the shooting of his officers, he made it clear to reporters that he expected more than just prayers from elected officials.
“I would express my personal frustration at lawmakers who know that we have a public health epidemic in this country that we call gun violence,” Acevedo said during a press conference. “For whatever reason, they offer a lot of prayers… But we didn’t elect people to pray for us.”
“To the elected officials, I appreciate your prayers, but quite frankly, we’ve got a community that prays for us,” he continued. “Criminals are gonna be criminals. Evil people are gonna be evil. The question is, what are policy makers willing to do besides prayers to address a public health epidemic?”
Five Houston police officers were shot in an ambush-style attack on Monday night.
"We didn't elect people to pray for us."
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo slams US lawmakers (i.e. Republicans) for not doing more to stop gun violence. 👮🏾♂️👮🏻♀️
— Greg Sarafan, Esq (@GSarafan)
According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have already been 25 mass shootings so far this year. The archive defines a mass shooting as any event in which four or more people are injured with a firearm, not including the shooter. Another recent deadly shooting was in Louisiana, in which a 21-year-old suspect before fleeing the state. He was recently captured alive in Virginia.