HOUSTON (KIAH) — Three teenagers have been identified after being arrested and charged with the officer-involved shooting that led to one of the suspects to be arrested at a high school in southwest Houston on Thursday afternoon, resulting in a lockdown of the campus.
Houston police said that the suspects were identified as John Nsenguwera, 18, Mohamed Rasheed Robinson, 17, and Mahamoudou Sylla, 18.
Nsenguwera was charged with aggravated assault against a peace officer, while Robinson and Sylla were charged with robbery by threat.
Police also identified the officer that fired his weapon as Officer R. Aguilar, who has been an HPD officer since 2016 and is assigned to the Midwest Patrol Division.
The teenager was part of a group of individuals who had been under surveillance by a crime suppression unit late Thursday morning at The Palms of Westheimer apartment complex, located at 6425 Westheimer Road in west Houston, when one of the suspects exchanged gunfire with an officer, said Houston Police Chief Troy Finner.
When Nswnguwera allegedly pointed a gun at the officer, he was shot once in the knee, police said. He along with Robinson were arrested at the complex.
But the third suspect, identified as Sylla, fled the scene and got a ride from a local resident to Wisdom High School, located about 1 mile away at 6529 Beverly Hill Street, Finner said.
“We interviewed that citizen and … he gave that kid a ride back to the school — didn’t know that he was involved in anything,” Finner said.
The suspect who traveled to the high school and one of the two arrested at the complex are enrolled at the school, according to authorities.
Houston Independent School District Police Chief Pete Lopez said as soon as his agency was notified the suspect had entered the high school, the campus was placed on lockdown.
After arriving at the campus, the suspect went into the school’s auditorium, which had at least 100 students, Finner said.
“We were able with our SWAT teams and other police officers, went in and got that suspect out safely with no one hurt,” he said.
Officers were still searching the campus to determine if the suspect had brought a weapon, according to Finner.
Finner said when the suspect was in the auditorium, the other students were not aware and “thought it was business as usual.”
“It ended as well as expected,” he said.
As is customary in officer-involved shooting incidents, the incident is being investigated by the HPD Special Investigations Unit, the Internal Affairs Division and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.