HOUSTON
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The mother of a man shot to death by police said she begged officers not to shoot her son, KPRC Local 2 reported Monday.
Houston police said officers were called to a domestic disturbance on Foster Street near Hull Street at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday. Investigators said a son was threatening his mother with a knife.
When officers arrived, Steven Guillory came out of the house with a 5-foot steel pole that had a large piece of concrete on the bottom, officials said.
Officers said Guillory, 39, appeared to be agitated and was yelling at them. He started moving toward the officers in a menacing manner, police said.
An officer shocked Guillory with a Taser gun, but that did not subdue him, investigators said.
Police said the officers moved away and called for backup. Guillory then broke most of the windows and headlights on their patrol car, investigators said. Part of the pipe broke off.
When backup arrived, Guillory threw part of the pipe at officers and charged at other officers with the pipe, detectives said.
Investigators said the officers told Guillory to stop, but he refused. Fearing for their lives, officers T.J. Jackson and R.B. Wieners fired their guns.
"Before they fired the shot, I hollered at them, I told them, I said, 'My son is schizophrenic. Don't shoot him. He's bipolar. Please don't shoot him,'" mother Joycelee Guillory Ardoyn said. "I said, 'If ya'll gotta shoot him, shoot him in the leg.' They didn't listen to me. They shot him anyway."
Guillory was shot at least once and died at the scene.
"Anytime we lose life it's a tragedy," Capt. Bruce Williams said. "This is a 39-year-old male who is no longer with us based on his own conduct."
"If he's deranged or if he's sane, it doesn't make a difference if he's swinging around a piece of galvanized pipe with concrete on the end, it can do a lot of damage to a human being. And officers don't have to put up with that and nor do the citizens," said Mark Clark, with the Houston police union. "The officers did the right thing. They followed it by the book."
Ardoyn and another witness said Guillory dropped the pipe when he was shocked by the Taser gun.
"I didn't see any stick or any weapons in his hand," the Rev. Louis Jolivette said. "Immediately after that, we hear some shooting and seen the young man fell down in the middle of the road."
Community activist Quanell X questioned why officers specially trained to deal with the mentally ill did not respond to the scene.
"Where is this crisis intervention team that Chief Hurtt says he will be implementing?" Quanell X asked. "It's one day too late, one life too short."
Investigators said the circumstances of the incident did not present an opportunity for the crisis intervention team to get involved.
"Responding officers exhibited incredible restraint by initially retreating from Guillory's deadly threat," police said in a written statement. "The Houston Police Department places the highest value on the preservation of life."
Ardoyn said the department was aware that Guillory was mentally ill because of several past calls for service. She said Guillory also told officers that he was ill before he was shot.
"He put his hands up in the air and he told them, 'I'm schizophrenic. Why are you bothering me like this?'" Ardoyn said. "They shot him anyhow."
Ardoyn said hours before her son was killed, she called the Harris County Psychiatric Center where he had been treated before and was told a bed was not available.
Police said deadly force is always a last resort if the person is mentally ill or not.
"Think twice before calling HPD because they're not coming with therapy," Quanell X said. "They're coming with bullets and they're going to kill your loved one. That's clearly been demonstrated from previous incidents."
Detectives said a responding officer was wounded in the leg during the gunfire. Officer T.K. Richardson was transported to Memorial Hermann Hospital and is expected to make a full recovery.
The Harris County District Attorney's Office and Houston Police Department Internal Affairs Division are reviewing the case.
