It’s not easy being a cop.
As if the regular duties of a cop, putting your life on the line protecting people from criminals weren’t enough, one off-duty cop had to put his life on the line yesterday to protect people in the suburbs from a Bengal Tiger!
Imagine looking out the window of your suburban home and seeing THIS in your neighbor’s yard.
Apparently there's a tiger loose on my parents' West Houston street? pic.twitter.com/TgdIiPSPKx
— robwormald (@robwormald) May 10, 2021
Here’s the story, according to TMZ:
8:28 AM PT — Houston PD tells TMZ … cops got a call about the tiger around 8 PM Sunday, but when they showed up … the animal was long gone. The police were told their suspect — the presumed owner of the tiger — had stuffed the tiger into a white Jeep Cherokee and fled. We’re told the police actually spotted the vehicle not too long after that, and a pursuit ensued … but they ended losing sight of it. They nabbed the plates, though, and are currently trying to track the guy down … whom cops describe as a Hispanic male in his late 20s. HPD says they believe the man was illegally keeping the tiger in the area. Whoever let their tiger out and about on the streets of a Houston neighborhood this weekend is certainly no Joe Exotic, but they were trying to be … and almost got the thing killed.
Here’s another view of it:
TIGER IN HOUSTON? A #KHOU11 viewer spotted one tonight and shot video of it. @JMilesKHOU has the story. https://t.co/48cvbN5PTz#HOUNews pic.twitter.com/DUX6RiJRlM
— KHOU 11 News Houston (@KHOU) May 10, 2021
So that’s when this off-duty Sheriff’s deputy apparently encounters this beast.
And he does what you and I would do in this situation. No, absolutely not.
He actually goes toward it!
A photo of the scene pic.twitter.com/wRZ4Bk59sY
— Michael Schwab (@michaelschwab13) May 10, 2021
More from TMZ:
Check out this wild scene that unfolded Sunday in the burb of Memorial, where a neighbor — who is allegedly an off-duty sheriff’s deputy — came face-to-face with the striped beast. The guy had his gun drawn as he tried yelling at it to stop, but it continued creeping toward him.
The supposed owner tells the cop not to shoot it and that he’ll get the animal, which he successfully did in the end without any bullets flying. You can even see the tiger has a collar on, and seems pretty comfortable when the human wrangles it in on their front yard.
YALL. I ABSOLUTELY CANT! Texas has a tiger king!
Authorities are searching for a Texas man whose tiger was found wandering around a residential area in Houston on Sunday night.
VIDEO: https://t.co/rmj1qT4iUt
— 𝙻𝚊𝚞𝚛𝚊 𝙰. 𝙷𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚜 (@LauraHarrisNBC5) May 10, 2021
To add to the drama, according to Khou 11 News, the tiger was allegedly owned by a man out on a murder charge who lost the tiger while being chased by the police:
Houston police are still looking for the man who escaped with his pet tiger late Sunday, and now they know why he probably took off.
The suspect, whose name hasn’t been released, is out on bond for a November 2020 murder in Fort Bend County, according to HPD Commander Borza.
Before police arrived to question him, the man loaded the Bengal tiger in a white Jeep Cherokee and took off. There was a brief chase, but they lost him.
Kudos to the brave Waller county Sheriff’s deputy, Wes Manion for barehandedly catching this animal. I bet they don’t train you for this in the academy.
From Khou 11 News:
An off-duty Waller County sheriff’s deputy was nearby and saw the online posting and came to the street.
The deputy pulled out a gun as it crossed the roadway toward him. That’s when another neighbor came outside and yelled at the deputy, “don’t shoot him! Don’t shoot him!”
“Last thing I wanted to do was shoot the tiger. It didn’t seem super aggressive,” Deputy Wes Manion said.
He told the man to take the tiger inside. A short time later, neighbors said they saw the man putting the tiger in his SUV and taking off before police showed up.
With all the bad publicity cops get, I just wanted to highlight one of the 99% of good, strong, brave cops who go and above and beyond the call of duty to keep their communities safe.
They are the real superheroes, and in Wes Manion’s case– he’s the real Tiger king.
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