Officer fatally shot by suspect in patrol car

Friday, September 22, 2006

(9/22/06 - HOUSTON) -- A 12-year Houston police officer was shot and killed as he sat in the front seat of his patrol car during a traffic stop, police said. Now Eyewitness News has learned that suspect should not have even been in the United States.

The suspect, Juan Quintero, accused in the murder of Officer Rodney Johnson, 40, appeared in court early Friday morning. A judge denied the 32-year-old bond at his probable cause hearing downtown.

Quintero is an illegal immigrant. According to the City of Houston's crime victim office, he was deported after having been convicted of indecency with a child.

HPD Officers' Union President Hans Marticiuc believes the suspect has confessed to the murder, but also admitted to using the gun which belongs to his girlfriend, who is a security officer.

Marticiuc said this is how he understands the incident occurred.

"When he pulled over the suspect, he had a couple of other people in the car with him. As of right now, I can't determine whether if it was a couple of juveniles or his girlfriend's daughter, etc, etc. I just don't know," said Marticiuc. "For one reason or another, Officer Johnson decided to put him in handcuffs and he put him in the patrol car, I'm assuming to arrest him. And you know the rest of the story."

Officer Gary Blankinship, a friend of Johnson's who spent time at the crime scene, said the suspect allegedly fired multiple shots at Johnson from the rear seat of the patrol car.

"To get killed on something as minor as a traffic stop really drives home how dangerous the job is," Blankinship said. "Rodney was a really good police officer. It's just one of those really tragic events. It just don't make sense. It was senseless."

Quintero is charged with capital murder. He was sitting handcuffed in the back seat of Johnson's patrol car and struggled against officers as they moved him to another vehicle, a witness said.

"They finally got him in the other car, but he was scratching and fighting and acting crazy, like he could win in a fight like that," said Clara Rodriguez, who lives nearby the shooting that took place near Hobby Airport.

A female passenger who left the scene had been found by officers for questioning, Chief Harold Hurtt said.

Hurtt said Johnson was "very personable."

"We will miss one of our true soldiers in Rodney Johnson," he said.

Johnson was born in Houston but graduated from high school in Oakland, Calif., in 1984, according to a biography kept by the Houston Police Officers' Union. He then served in the U.S. Army as a military police officer until being honorably discharged in 1990.

Johnson went to work as a corrections officer for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and then as a jail attendant. He graduated from the Houston police academy in 1994.

As a member of the department's Southeast Gang Task Force, Johnson earned two Lifesaving Awards and one Medal of Valor from the state of Texas.

Johnson, who was 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighed nearly 300 pounds, served on the officers' union board of directors.

"He was big and he was intimidating-looking, but he was as gentle as a baby bear," said Hans Marticiuc, union president.

Marticiuc said Johnson was extremely safety conscious.

"He knows how to search. He worked in the jail for a number of years and all they do is search prisoners down there. "

Johnson is survived by his wife, Joslyn Johnson, an officer with the Houston police, and the couple's five children.

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