Det. Everett Briscoe was having dinner on the patio when gunfire erupted, police said
August 22, 2021 By Ramon Antonio Vargas – The Times-Picayune
NEW ORLEANS — The off-duty New Orleans Police Department officer who was killed while visiting Houston Saturday evening was veteran detective Everett Briscoe, according to multiple law enforcement sources.
Briscoe, 41, joined the NOPD in 2008. He spent much of his career investigating crimes reported in the NOPD’s 1st District, which includes Mid-City and Treme, as well as killings across the city as part of the agency’s homicide investigations division.
Among his professional achievements was a unit citation earned in 2016.
Authorities haven’t officially released Briscoe’s name, but members of the city’s law enforcement community had been notified that he was killed in a shooting that erupted on a restaurant patio in Houston’s Galleria area.
A father of two children, Briscoe was eating dinner on the patio of the Grotto Ristorante when two people wielding guns approached a group of patrons and demanded their belongings, investigators told media in Houston. Though the group was complying, one of the stick-up men fired, media in Houston reported, citing witnesses.
Briscoe was mortally wounded, and a second person who was shot was taken to a hospital in critical condition, police said. The assailants purportedly left empty-handed in a silver or gray Nissan Altima with paper license plates, and a manhunt was ongoing as of Saturday night.
NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson issued a statement saying that the force was praying for the slain officer’s family as well as the second victim.
“I … ask that you pray for the NOPD family as we begin to understand the enormous loss we have suffered,” Ferguson’s said.
Tributes in memory of Briscoe began surfacing on social media late Saturday, including one that described him as a member of the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club.
“Some things I will never understand,” read one tribute. “Rest well, Everett Briscoe.”
Another read: “I guess God needed you to protect his gates.”
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