Harris County sheriff’s deputy, 28, killed in shooting, suspect remains at-large

An on-duty Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputy died after being shot multiple times while staking out a potential assault suspect in an undercover pickup truck, sheriff’s officials said Thursday.

The 28-year-old deputy, Fernando Esqueda, was searching at about midnight Thursday in northeast Harris County for the assault suspect when an assailant opened fire, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.

Esqueda was a five-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Office and engaged to be married, Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said 44-year-old Ronnie Palmer has been charged in connection with the assault and is a “person of interest” in the fatal shooting of Esqueda. Anyone with information about Palmer, who is considered armed and dangerous, is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 713-222-8477.

Harris County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Mike Lee said early Thursday morning that Esqueda “apparently was ambushed,” but Gonzalez said later in the morning that “we don’t know if it’s some type of ambush.”

Gonzalez noted that the preliminary investigation shows Esqueda didn’t fire his weapon. Esqueda was shot in the upper torso and his vehicle was riddled with bullets, Gonzalez said.

Esqueda worked on a task force responsible for arresting suspects accused of violent crimes.

“Everybody just said he was such a crime fighter. He loved being a deputy, he really did,” Gonzalez told the Houston Landing on Thursday.

Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy Arieanna Onuba-Kimble recalled Esqueda as playful, fun and “a joy to work with” during their time together on patrol in Crosby in 2019. But when it came to his work, Esqueda was focused and ambitious, Gonzalez and Onuba-Kimble said.

“He was always busy,” Onuba-Kimble said. “Wanted the next, next, next.”

An assault, then a shooting

Lee said deputies initially responded at about 10 p.m. Wednesday to a call from a Little Caesars Pizza store near Beltway 8 and Wallisville Road, located on the northern end of Channelview. A clerk reported that the suspect entered the store to pick up a pizza, became angry about employees messing up his order, then took out a gun and pistol-whipped a clerk with it.

The suspect fled in a vehicle, which the clerk identified by its make, model and license plate number, Lee said. Deputies used license plate tracking software to link the vehicle to an area about five miles north of the Little Caesars Pizza store.

Esqueda spotted the vehicle and started staking it out, at one point calling a fellow detective, Lee said. While on the phone, shots started ringing out. Deputies responded to the area, found Esqueda and transported him in a patrol car to Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital, where he was pronounced dead in the emergency room.

Gonzalez said Esqueda was in an unmarked truck, but he was wearing his Sheriff’s Office uniform.

Lee said early Thursday that SWAT teams were set up on two potential locations where the suspect might be.

“I have no doubt, between the forces of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office and Houston Police Department, that we’ll have this suspect in custody in a very timely manner, and then we’ll allow the criminal justice system to play its course,” Lee said.

Palmer’s last criminal conviction in Texas came in 2005 on a misdemeanor charge of unlawfully carrying a weapon, according to state records. He pleaded guilty in 1999 to a misdemeanor charge after prosecutors said he threatened and shot at an acquaintance with a sawed-off shotgun.