HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — Questions are being raised after a convicted murderer was caught with a loaded gun inside the Harris County Jail on Tuesday morning.
The video above is from ABC13’s 24/7 livestream.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said jailers at the 1200 Baker Street facility discovered the gun hidden inside a seat cushion on inmate Tyrone Kennedy’s wheelchair after getting an anonymous tip.
“It’s something that amazes and astounds me and ought to make us go, ‘Come on now,'” legal analyst Brian Wice said.
Kennedy was serving time in prison for a 1995 murder conviction but was later paroled. He was arrested and booked into jail on Oct. 23 for violating his parole terms.
It’s unclear how Kennedy obtained the gun.
“In four-and-half decades doing what I’ve done as a criminal defense attorney, this is an outlier. It’s a black swan. I’ve never heard of anything quite like this,” Wice said.
A former jailer told Eyewitness News that most inmates’ wheelchairs are jail-issued and that inmates need special permission to have personal ones like King’s.
Wheelchairs are usually taken apart and searched before being allowed into the jail, but it’s unclear if that happened in this case.
“Obviously, there’s something radically wrong with the quality control process at the Harris County Jail,” Wice said.
The sheriff’s office hasn’t said whether it believes Kennedy smuggled the gun in at the time of his booking or if someone else smuggled it in for him.
“I’m gonna think that the trail doesn’t begin and end with this inmate. I think that somebody had to have a hand in this, and whether it’s a civilian, whether it’s a jailer, whether it’s the tooth fairy, nobody knows at this point,” Wice said.
MISSOURI CITY, Texas (KTRK) — The parents of a non-verbal middle school student want answers after they said their son did not get the urgent medical attention he needed following an injury at school.
Tuesday afternoon, 11-year-old Kyle Bensurto was recovering at home. His father told ABC13 he was relieved to see him feeling a little better just three weeks after an agonizing incident on Nov. 5.
“It was like an animal struggling on the road and people just surrounding it, waiting for him to die. That’s how I describe it,” explained Hermann Bensurto. “I’m sorry but that’s what it looked like.”
The Bensurtos said they got a call from Quail Valley Middle School in Fort Bend ISD that Kyle, who is non-verbal and lives with autism, would not get up off the floor. His mother, Maryann Bensurto, drove to the school, found him still on the floor and called her husband.
“I heard in the background the nurse was asking, ‘Do we need to call an ambulance?’ And I was like, ‘Like, what? Don’t they know my son was laying there for two hours?’ and I was like, ‘Yes,'” Hermann recalled.Skip Ad
Kyle was finally taken to the hospital and admitted. He underwent surgery to insert a metal plate and eight pins in his left thigh after an x-ray showed he had shattered his femur. He has more surgeries ahead.
“You could hear on the phone he was screaming. How come they don’t know what to do?” Hermann asked.
Kyle’s mother took a video of her son while he was still at school. It shows him writhing and moaning in pain.
Since then, attorney Joe Mathew has been able to watch the classroom surveillance video of the incident. It was two hours and 15 minutes long, he said. He saw Kyle slip and fall. The rest is shocking.
“What do they do? They leave him on the ground for two hours while they’re sitting around, talking, laughing, eating lunch and ordering orange chicken,'” explained Mathew.
In a statement to Eyewitness News, Fort Bend ISD wrote, “Staff members involved in this incident are no longer employed by the district. We remain committed to creating a safe and secure learning environment for every student.”
For now, Kyle has to be pushed in a wheelchair to get around. His parents and Mathew want answers.
“What are the policies and procedures? We don’t want this to happen to any other kid,” Mathew said.
Kyle is the most vulnerable kind. His father said it will be hard to trust school employees again.
“The neglect, incompetence of these people. They need to know what’s going on,” Hermann said.
Prosecutors have filed over 175 felony charges as the Houston Police Department (HPD) concludes its review of more than 264,000 cases suspended due to staffing shortages. HPD leaders aim to complete the process by early 2025.
The scandal, first revealed to the public earlier this year, exposed “systemic failures” stemming from the use of a code to track cases unresolved due to a lack of personnel. The fallout included the retirement of former Chief Troy Finner and the removal of several high-ranking officials. The code, created in 2016, came under scrutiny in a final report that detailed its misuse.
Case Review Status
Of the cases reviewed:
71,800 were suspended again.
13,000 were inactivated.
13,800 were closed.
Only 7,900 were cleared.
Officials distinguish suspended cases from those marked “SL” (Suspended-Lack of Personnel), noting that suspended cases include arrests and those with no viable leads. Despite this, it remains unclear how much the department’s practices have changed.
Former HPD Planning Director Diana Poor expressed skepticism, citing a recurring cycle: “They’ll shift resources from patrol to investigations, then back again, creating a constant Band-Aid effect.”
Current Progress
As of November 15, HPD had reviewed 94% of the 264,000 cases, averaging 4,800 cases per week. Most divisions—such as homicide, vehicular crimes, auto theft, and special victims—have completed their reviews. Remaining cases are in major assaults, family violence, property crimes, and financial crimes.
In addition to the felony charges, prosecutors filed 86 misdemeanor charges, according to HPD spokesperson Shay Awosiyan.
Systemic Challenges
Poor acknowledged some recent changes, such as the creation of a family violence-specific division in response to rising domestic violence cases. However, she warned that without addressing staffing levels, the department risks repeating past failures.
Key issues include:
Insufficient staffing: HPD’s current 5,200 officers and 900 civilians fall short of the estimated 7,200 officers needed. Poor suggested a more realistic goal of 6,000 officers and 1,500–1,800 civilians.
Disproportionate caseloads: Divisions like auto theft face thousands of new cases monthly, creating unsustainable workloads.
“This cycle of urgency, followed by temporary fixes, leads to the same issues resurfacing,” Poor said.
Historical Context
A 2014 audit revealed that HPD failed to investigate over 20,000 cases in 2013 due to manpower shortages, including 15,000 burglary and theft cases, 3,000 assaults, and 3,000 hit-and-runs. The SL code was introduced as a metric to track unresolved cases, but it has since become a symbol of the department’s chronic resource challenges.
Mayor John Whitmire has proposed raising the city’s revenue cap to increase police funding, but Poor fears the issue may once again fade from public attention, as it has repeatedly over the past three decades.
“There’s always urgency at first,” she said, “but once the bleeding stops, the mandate disappears.”
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — A 17-year-old charged in the shooting death of his 16-year-old brother in the Tomball area tried to blame the killing on someone else, according to court documents.
ABC13 was there Tuesday morning as Rhyder Tettleton appeared in court.
A judge found probable cause against Tettleton, meaning the legal process will proceed. The teen is facing a manslaughter charge due to reckless behavior instead of a charge for murder, which is done with intent, according to the Texas Penal Code.
Authorities said a murder charge was accepted initially but, upon further review, was changed to manslaughter, a crime punishable by two to 20 years in prison.
The shooting happened at about 3:30 a.m. Monday inside a barn on Stone Creek Court in the Stone Lake subdivision when the brothers’ parents weren’t home, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said. Instead, sources say, the parents were at a hospital overnight, awaiting the mother’s back surgery.
Deputies said a group of six teenage boys were at Tettleton’s home, drinking and handling a 9mm handgun.
Tettleton pointed what he thought was an unloaded weapon at his 16-year-old brother and pulled the trigger, shooting him in the abdomen. The 16-year-old died at the scene.
Witnesses told officers they heard a gunshot, looked up, and saw the suspect holding the gun as he stood next to his brother.
Another person claims he heard the 16-year-old say, “I think I’m gonna die. Help me. Help me.”
The suspect allegedly told the others in the barn to say they shot his brother.
When authorities spoke to Tettleton, he denied being involved or being able to remember what happened, according to information learned in court Tuesday.
He later admitted, with his attorney present, that he picked up the gun, thought it didn’t have any ammunition inside, and shot it within six inches of his brother, but didn’t mean to hurt him.
Tettleton also admitted to telling everyone where to hide the weapon, according to records.
Tettleton, a 12th grade student, was placed in the Harris County Jail.
As part of his bond conditions, he can’t be around the other teenagers who were there when the shooting happened.
Throughout the country, once bustling business districts have turned into ghost towns. The pandemic has shown that many jobs can be done remotely. Now some major U.S. cities are breathing new life into empty office buildings by converting them into housing. Notable cities that are part of this trend include New York, Austin, Cleveland, San Francisco, and Boston.
The office vacancy rate is 20.1% in the U.S., according to Moody’s. That’s a 30-year high, with more than 900 million square feet of office space empty — enough to fill New York City’s One World Trade Center 300 times.
Amazon, Citigroup, Walmart, and UPS are among the major companies now requiring employees to spend more time in the office. Some companies are pulling out all the stops to entice workers back. Amenities may include massage rooms, health care services, and on-site personal gyms.
Soho shopping district in New York City
Alexander Spatari/Getty Images
However, most experts agree that hybrid and remote work is here to stay. “Companies don’t need office space in the way that they needed office space 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 50 years ago,” Evan Horowitz, executive director of The Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University, said. “Remote work has just transformed that landscape.”
Major cities across the country, including Boston, Austin, and Chicago, are seeing office vacancies at or near record highs. In San Francisco, more than 22% of offices are currently empty, a significant increase from about 9% in 2019.
Some cities are now at risk of falling into what is known as the “economic doom loop.” High vacancy rates can cause property values to plummet, decreasing tax revenue. This decrease in revenue affects funding for essential services such as schools, police and sanitation, ultimately making these cities less desirable places to live.
Horowitz says Boston is more vulnerable to falling into an “economic doom loop” than other major cities because of its unique s tax structure.
Boston skyline.
Tomasz Szulczewski/Getty Images
“Boston is closer to crisis mode than other cities because it is so dependent on taxes from commercial real estate, twice as dependent as virtually any other city in the country,” Horowitz said. The loss of commercial tenants is having a ripple effect on area businesses.
When Dave Savoie bought his favorite bar and grill, Silvertone, in 2016 he said it was like a dream come true.
The downtown Boston establishment was popular with the business crowd. Office workers made up 50% of Savoie’s customers, but all that changed with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I used to call them suits,” Savoie said. “You know, the office guys, the finance guys. And this was their place. [Now] they work from home. If people come to the city now, they work a maximum three days a week.”
It proved too much for Silvertone and, after 27 years, eight of them under Savoie’s ownership, the bar announced “last call” in May.
Boston’s Mayor Michelle Wu, who is up for reelection next year, is taking steps to address the situation. She is implementing tax breaks and zoning changes to transform unwanted office space into much-needed housing.
“We have about 500 housing units that are now in the pipeline to be converted out of formerly vacant office buildings,” Wu told ABC News. “We’re taking city buildings like libraries that need renovations and adding housing on top of that and making it faster than ever before through zoning and other city regulatory processes to get your building built and to get those shovels in the ground. The more that downtown is a residential, thriving, busy neighborhood, just like every other one of our neighborhoods, the more everyone benefits.”
The idea is that business districts will be reimagined as vibrant 24/7 neighborhoods that seamlessly blend work, living, dining and entertainment. This holistic approach aims to create a dynamic community where daily life and work coexist, fostering a rich, interconnected lifestyle.
“There are lots of ways to build a vibrant downtown that doesn’t involve the central role of office buildings,” Horowitz said. “It could be apartments, it could be lab space. There are lots of other things you can do with land that makes people want to go downtown and enjoy themselves.”
Many cities are already converting office space into housing, with Cleveland leading the way — 11% of its office inventory is currently undergoing this transformation. Similar projects are also taking place in Cincinnati, Houston, and New York, where the iconic Flatiron office building is set to be transformed into luxury condominiums. “This is a challenge that’s affecting every city in America,” Wu said. “And in Boston, we’re showing that it’s also an opportunity.”
That “opportunity” is something David Greaney is seizing on. At a time when many real estate investors are looking to sell their office buildings, Greaney and his firm Synergy are buying them up, at a deep discount. Synergy currently owns 35 properties in the Greater Boston area – four of them were bought in just the past 12 months.
Greaney says the worst is over in terms of office vacancies, and he is positive about the future of cities. “The great thing about cities is that cities evolve, and I certainly think that our cities will evolve,” Greaney said. “You may see more residential uses, more hospitality or institutional uses, but the office component of downtowns, I believe, will continue to be a very big factor.”
Working out of one of the same buildings Greaney recently bought, small business owners and brothers Michael and Emilio Ruggeri are betting on a comeback for Boston’s
For three decades they have been serving breakfast and lunch to the office crowd at their Archie’s NY Deli. Office workers accounted for nearly 80% of their business pre-pandemic, but that number has since dwindled to about 50%.
“We’ve been doing more deliveries,” said Emilio Ruggeri. “The construction guys have actually kept us going.”
They’ve also reduced their staff, trimmed their menu and shortened their hours to make ends meet, confident that things will turn around.
“I’m an eternal optimist,” said Michael Ruggeri. “The buildings are way too expensive to just stay empty. Someone’s going to take over the space, so we’re hopeful.”
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — A 16-year-old boy is dead after a shooting at a home in the Tomball area early Monday morning, according to the sheriff.
According to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, several teenagers may have been handling a pistol when it was discharged unintentionally. Gonzalez said the information is preliminary and the investigation is ongoing.
The shooting happened at a home in the 19923 block of Stone Creek Court in the Stone Lake subdivision in northwest Harris County. The teen was pronounced dead at the scene.
An ABC13 crew at the scene on Monday morning saw a large law enforcement presence, including homicide detectives.
The detectives were seen going in and out of a barn on the property.
ABC13 has a crew at the scene working to gather more information.
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Frustrations are high at a senior living complex on the southeast side, and residents say an elevator has been broken since July.
“When was the last time I was on the elevator? July? July!” renter Patricia Moon told Eyewitness News.
Moon can get up and down the stairs, but many of her neighbors can’t.
It’s been four long months for the residents of building four at The Life at Sterling Woods, a senior living community.
A piece of paper posted outside the elevator dated July 10 says that management is waiting on a part to fix the elevator.
“We are waiting for parts for the elevator to be fixed. Today, what is it? November? And we are still waiting on the same damn part,” Moon said.
People living in the building say they either have to miss their appointments or go to great lengths to get there.
“Whenever I’ve got to get up and down, that’s who I call. That’s the only way I can get up and down, and I’ve called them quite a few times to get me to the bottom floor,” one woman explained.
This woman has been calling the Houston Fire Department.
HFD’s Station 29 has been coming out to help her get down the stairs so she can make it to her doctor’s appointments.
She says she feels bad bothering them, but what’s her other option?
“I feel closed in. I can’t move around, depressed and just waiting until the elevators get fixed,” she explained.
She didn’t want to show her face because she was fearful of retaliation from management, which we heard from many people there.
Down on the second floor, Melvin Johnson says he hasn’t left his apartment in months because of this broken elevator.
“I can’t go downstairs and visit none of the neighbors. I can’t go to my doctor’s appointments. Every appointment I’ve had, I’ve missed because I can’t get out. I don’t want any special treatment, but I want to be treated fairly,” Johnson explained.
Their ask is simple: they just want a working elevator.
“This is a necessity. Too many people depend on it,” Moon said.
So far, no one in the office has been able to tell ABC13 when the elevator will be fixed.
Asset Living, based here in Houston, manages this property. They have not responded to Eyewitness News’ multiple attempts to get answers.
ABC13 is told the Houston Housing Authority will be out to inspect the property next week.
We’ve also been in touch with council member Joaquin Martinez’s office. They tell us they are planning to come out and see the problem for themselves next week.
Officials expect a record 2.2 million passengers to travel through Houston airports during this year’s Thanksgiving holiday travel period, which started on Nov. 21 and will end on Dec. 2.
Ten of those days are forecasted to see more than a combined 175,000 daily travelers.
Out of that number, they anticipate 1.7 million passengers will travel through George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), and 500,000 people will go through William P. Hobby Airport (HOU). That’s a 2% increase from 2023 and a 9% increase from 2022.
Experts say the busiest travel day will be Sunday, Dec. 1, with an estimated 206,000 travelers. The second busiest was Friday, November 22, with 205,000 travelers; the third was Sunday, November 24, with 200,000 passengers.
Aixa Diaz, spokesperson for AAA, said they are noticing a national shift when passengers travel during the Thanksgiving holiday.
“Now, more people are leaving on Tuesday before Thanksgiving. A lot of schools are closed on Wednesday. So families with kids are taking off on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. Then instead of coming back on Sunday, they’re coming back on Monday because Sunday traffic has historically been just so bad,” Diaz said.
American, Delta and United Airlines also expect this year to be their busiest Thanksgiving holiday travel period.
To help expedite congestion at Bush Airport, airport officials said they have partnered with the Houston Police Department and contracted police officers from other agencies to help with traffic control. Since November 2023, they said they’ve also hired 30 additional airport employees to work along the IAH curbs.
An extra lane also re-opened on North Terminal Road at Bush Airport last Wednesday, allowing for four lanes of traffic. However, officials said travelers should still anticipate delays and arrive early.
For those who are still looking to book flights, the fewest passengers are forecasted for Thanksgiving Day, with 117,000, and Black Friday, with 159,000.
If you plan to park your vehicle at the airport, officials recommend booking online at least 12 hours in advance to secure a spot. You can also download the Houston Airports app to reserve parking and monitor TSA wait times.
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A prominent Houston attorney is now accused of a sexual encounter with a 16-year-old, and according to investigators, it was captured on camera.
Feras Mousilli, 46, was arrested on Tuesday at Bush Airport and has since bonded out of jail.
Mousilli has been charged with sexual performance by a child.
A judge has issued a protective order, requiring he stay away from the 16-year-old and her family.
He has also been ordered not to use any smart phones or other electronic devices.
According to his firm’s website, Mousilli specializes in technology law.
“There are electronic devices involved in this case that have evidence that’s germane to this case. Essentially, it’s pornographic evidence, and the concern for myself as the representative of the court at this point in time is I don’t want you accessing any kind of child pornography or those kinds of things because this incident involves a child,” a judge said.
Court documents show a 16-year-old girl reported to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services that she had been having sexual intercourse and that she had met Mousilli on the dating app Bumble.
Investigators report finding screenshots and video on her phone, with at least one video from on or about May 10, according to those investigators, that showed both her and Mousilli naked.
“The evidence that I’m aware of is pretty damning. I’m not going to take the chance of you doing something else to some other kid if that’s what happened. There is evidence of communication between you and the child that resulted in meetings where you allegedly did things with this child and, etc., so yeah, those are restrictions that I’m imposing,” the judge told him.
Court documents show the girl told investigators she had shown Mousilli her passport with her date of birth and said he had admitted to her that he could go to jail.
Mousilli’s attorney released the following statement.
“Mr. Mousilli has worked his entire career to build a strong reputation. Everything that he is being accused of in time will be proven to be false. These allegations have shocked Mr. Mousilli and we are asking you to use an abundance of caution in reporting this information because once the investigation is complete, it will be very clear he was the victim of a deliberate fraud, leading to this unjust charge,” the statement read.
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A suspect is facing charges in connection to a fatal crash that killed a Harris County Precinct 5 deputy constable and her daughter on I-10 Katy Freeway early Friday morning, Houston police said.
On Friday night, Omar Jose Alvarado, 23, was charged with two counts of intoxication manslaughter. Alvarado was taken to the Harris County Jail.
Alvarado was questioned at the scene and taken to a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.
Constable Ted Heap identified the deputy constable as 46-year-old Katherine Hutson. Her daughter, Kacey, was just 7 years old.
All westbound lanes of the freeway at the IH-610 West Loop were shut down for eight hours. The road reopened at about 11 a.m.
The three-vehicle crash happened at 3:07 a.m. Police said a Mazda crashed into Hutson’s car, and a utility truck was parked on the shoulder. All three vehicles instantly burst into flames.
Houston TranStar cameras showed large flames at one point as emergency crews responded.
HPD said a worker who was standing outside of the utility truck was taken to the hospital in stable condition with burns. A female passenger in the Mazda was also taken to the hospital.
Investigators said the driver of the Mazda was not hurt and stayed at the scene to cooperate with investigators.
After running toxicology and DWI tests to determine if impairment was a factor in the deadly crash, police found the at-fault driver to be impaired.
“Constable Ted Heap, along with his deputies and staff, mourn the loss of Deputy Katherine Hutson and her daughter Kacey, whose lives were lost when they were struck by a suspected drunk driver on the Katy Freeway this morning,” the constable’s office shared on social media.
According to Heap, Hutson was an 18-year veteran of the agency. She had been with Pct. 5 since 2006, serving in patrol, parks, toll road, and, most recently, civil division.
Pct. 5 said she was a single mother working an extra job, providing a police presence for road improvements. ABC13 asked why her daughter was with her while she worked the job but has yet to receive an answer.
“Katherine was a loving and caring mother as well as a dedicated deputy,” Heap said. “She was a friend to many in our department, and her smile and upbeat personality will be dearly missed. I ask you all to keep her family and loved ones in your prayers.”
One community missing the deputy is the Bear Creek Village neighborhood. Residents said she patrolled the area, and she rescued many of them during Hurricane Harvey.
Mario Sandoval said Hutson rescued his family, including three young children, during the hurricane. She was our hero,” Sandoval said.
He shared a video with ABC13 showing Hutson riding in the front of the boat after she and another law enforcement member rescued them.
“They took us to Highway 6 by boat, and I remember Officer Hutson. She grabbed two of my kids in her arms and took them for the boat,” Sandoval recalled.
The Houston Police Department is investigating the crash.
“I do ask Houstonians to please pray for these families, especially with the holidays coming up,” Asst. Chief Adrian Rodriguez said. “This is a very tragic scene that we have, and our hearts and prayers go out to the individuals that were lost and their family members who are going to have to deal with this tragic scene.”
