A Houston woman was repeatedly shot inside her friend's apartment by deputies responding to a call at a neighboring unit about an intruder, an incident that her attorney, the national civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, said "should have never happened."
The woman, identified as Eboni Pouncy, was injured in the Feb. 3 shooting, sustaining a total of five gunshot wounds to the leg and torso, and is currently recovering, Crump said in a statement obtained by NBC News.
Pouncy was at Her Friend's Apartment, Had Broken the Glass to Retrieve Keys Forgotten inside Apartment
The sheriff's office said deputies were called to the Pines of Woodforest Apartments around 2:10 a.m. after a woman reported that someone was inside her apartment.
The first deputy on the scene cleared the apartment and made sure it was "safe and secure," according to authorities. After a second deputy arrived, someone in a neighboring unit flagged down the deputies and said that someone had broken into a different apartment.
Both deputies went to that apartment, which belonged to Pouncy's friend. There, deputies reported seeing "the front window screen removed, broken glass and the blinds raised, near the front door," the sheriff's office said in a video statement.
Pouncy's friend, who was with her the previous night, said that she had forgotten her keys to her apartment. The friend told Pouncy to break the window so they could enter, she said at a news conference last Friday.
The two had been in the house for about 20 minutes when they heard a loud banging on the door, Pouncy's friend said. Pouncy, fearing it was an intruder, grabbed her gun and went to the door before she was fired upon by the deputies, according to the friend.
Bodycam Footage
Body camera footage from two Harris County sheriff's deputies showed them approaching the apartment of Pouncy's friend. The videos, released Saturday along with a video statement on the incident, show one of the deputies banging on the door and yelling, "Sheriff's office!"
Both deputies move away from the front door toward the windows.
One deputy can be heard in the footage saying that she sees someone coming to the door and shouting, "Gun!" The deputies begin firing their weapons repeatedly, reload and continue to fire, the videos show. The sheriff's office said a handgun was later recovered inside the apartment near the entrance.
Deputies Accused of Using 'Unnecessary and Excessive Force'
While Crump acknowledged Pouncy was holding her legally registered gun, he added in a statement Monday that "this newly-released body cam footage is evidence of the unnecessary and excessive force used against" his client.
"The video shows the deputies that responded to Eboni's friend's house shot first and asked questions later," Crump said.
The shooting remains under investigation by the sheriff's office homicide unit. The Harris County District Attorney's Office and the sheriff's office internal affairs unit are conducting their own independent investigations. The two deputies involved have been placed on administrative leave
