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| Photo Credit: AP. |
Four people were confirmed dead in Houston, Texas Sunday morning after a gunman burned homes and shot residents as they fled burning buildings, police say.
A statement
by Houston Police Department (HPD) Chief Troy Finner confirmed the incident occurred
at 8029 Dunlap Street in the early hours of Sunday morning, Newsweek reports.
The Houston
Fire Department (HFD) dispatched firefighters to the scene of the rental
property that was burning but they were fired upon by the shooter.
Firefighters
later took cover and exchanged fire with the gunman. The gunman died in the firefight
and police say three other people were killed in the gunfire.
Finner said
at a press conference that "HFD and HPD received multiple calls. One call
came in as a person down, another call came in as a shooting. Also, a fire call
came in.
"This
suspect, unfortunately, and very sadly and very evily (sic) set fire to several
residences. Laid waiting for those residents to come out and fired upon
them."
Finner
described the suspect as black, 40 who wore an all-black outfit, and added the
suspect was armed with a shotgun, according to Newsweek.
"That
suspect is on the scene deceased. We have two other individuals on the scene,
deceased. They are both white males in their 60s, Newsweek reported.
"We
have another African American male who was approximately 40 years old,
transported to the hospital deceased.
"Another male, approximately 40 to 50 years old was transported to the hospital with an injury of a shot to his arm. Another male who was running away was injured, but he was not transported to the hospital."
"I want
to say something. It's sad what's going on in our nation and I always ask for a
prayer and I'm going to ask for one right now, Finner said.
"All of
these families. Can you imagine some of them probably haven't been notified
just of yet. It's currently 1 o'clock in the morning. But please pray."