New details emerge about fatal shooting of Houston police officer

(9/22/06 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- Houston police have been working to figure out exactly what happened when a traffic stop turned into a fatal shooting of an officer.

After speaking to several eyewitnesses, Captain Dale Brown with HPD's homicide division was able to piece together exactly what happened Thursday evening. This all started with a traffic stop around 5:30pm. Police say HPD Officer Rodney Johnson pulled Juan Leonardo Quintero, 32, over for speeding. Quintero was reportedly traveling at 50 mph in a 30 mph zone on Braniff, near Hobby Airport. He pulled over onto Randolph.

Quintero had been driving a white extended cab Ford pickup that belonged to his employer. He worked for a landscaping company in the Deer Park area. Quintero and a co-worker were in the front seat, and there were two girls in the backseat. The girls were the daughters of Quintero's common-law wife.

It turns out that Quintero had no identification on him, but he did have an insurance card. The lack of identification is why Officer Johnson decided to take Quintero into custody.

Johnson apparently handcuffed Quintero with his hands behind his back, then patted him down. Quintero was placed in the back seat of the squad car.

At that point, Johnson returned to the pickup truck Quintero had been driving. Since the vehicle didn't belong to any of the other occupants, the officer called for a tow truck. He told the two young ladies who were in the vehicle with Quintero to walk to their nearby home.

Johnson went back to his patrol car and sat in the front seat with the door partially open. Quintero allegedly somehow maneuvered his hands and produced a 9mm pistol. He reportedly fired four shots, hitting Officer Johnson in the face. Johnson was able to activate an emergency key in his vehicle.

"Some people are very limber," explained Captain Brown. "They can manipulate the handcuffs behind them. The other possibility is that, also, a very limber person can get the cuffs below their legs and bring them to the front."

A wrecker driver who responded to the scene approached the patrol car, unaware of what had happened. As he walked up to the driver's side, he realized the officer was in distress. He went to give assistance, but hadn't noticed the suspect in the backseat, who then fired at the driver. The man wasn't hit, and the bullet struck a nearby building.

Other officers arrived on the scene and took Quintero into custody. The weapon was retrieved from the back seat of the patrol car. The gun apparently belongs to the suspect's common-law wife. Authorities believe Quintero had it concealed in his waistband.

"My personal belief is that he was upset over being arrested rather than being written a ticket," Captain Brown speculated. "I believe he was upset because he knew he was going to be discovered as a deported alien and that he would face several years in the federal prison system as a result of that before being deported again."

Quintero has been charged with capital murder. He is being held without bond.
(Copyright © 2006, KTRK-TV)

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