A Texas police officer was killed and another critically injured when their helicopter crashed as they were responding to a call early Saturday morning, according to officials.
The officers became trapped inside a department copter after it went down around 2 a.m. near an apartment complex on the north side of the city. The officers had to be extracted by the Houston Fire Department, FOX 26 in Houston reported.
Later Saturday morning, the mayor of Houston asked for the community’s support for the family of an officer who died in the crash. “This is a sad morning,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said.
“They literally had to cut the pilots out of the wreckage,” Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo told reporters at a news conference soon after the crash.
The pilot was still in surgery, Acevedo said, and was “very banged up” but police were hopeful he would survive.
“We don’t have any idea why it went down at this time,” Acevedo said at the first press conference, near the north Houston crash scene, and reiterated that later in the morning.
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The helicopter was supposed to assist with a search for bodies in a nearby bayou, which was prompted by a tip that the police chief characterized as “probably a bogus call — we don’t know,” said Acevedo.
The cause of the crash was under investigation, according to FOX 26.
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No other injuries were reported. The officers have not yet been identified. Acevedo said police had picked up immediate family members and taken them to the hospital.
He noted that shots rang out across the street from the complex around 3 a.m., while police were investigating the crash.
Six people were taken into custody and no injuries were reported, he said, updating the number of people from three. Acevedo stressed that police had no information indicating the helicopter was taken down by hostile action.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.