Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo broke down in tears Monday afternoon while officially announcing the death of Sergeant Steve Perez, who was killed on the way to work in the dark early Sunday morning. He drove for hours trying to find a water free path to the station, but as the waters kept rising he got caught in a flooded underpass and drowned.
"The American Cajun Navy helped us look for him and we couldn't find him and once our dive team go there, it was too treacherous," Acevedo said. "As much as we wanted to recover him last night, we could not put more officers at risk for what we knew in our hearts was going to be a recovery mission."
Officer Steve Perez left his home in heavy rain and spent hours trying to get to work, police say https://t.co/IteM0zbGVi
— Meg Wagner (@megwagner) August 29, 2017
Police chief: Wife of officer who drowned in Texas told him not to work Sunday. He replied, "We've got work to do." https://t.co/EhdKRRj6GD
— CNN (@CNN) August 29, 2017
Perez was on the force for 34 years and would have turned 61-years-old on Wednesday.
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