HOUSTON – Detectives are investigating a shootout at a Dairy Queen on Jones Road and FM 1960 that left one man dead.
Detectives say about eight customers and employees were inside the Dairy Queen when two men attempted to rob the restaurant around 7 p.m. Thursday.
One suspect, who is now dead, threatened the customers with a gun. He then put the gun to the head of one of the employees while everyone else ran to hide in the restroom.
One customer didn’t hide. It was an off-duty Waller County sheriff's deputy who was having dinner with his family.
He ended up shooting the suspect several times. The second suspect was able to escape.
A witness, who was sitting in the drive-thru, darted across the street when the shots rang out. She tried to get help, then she called her husband.
"At first she was calm and then the next thing I know she started screaming on the phone. Her husband started panicking. At first I assumed that she had gotten into an accident, then he's telling me she heard gun shots ring out," said Joshua Davidson, who is a friend of the witness.
Investigators are searching for the second suspect with dogs and helicopters.
Harris County sheriff's deputies say he left the Dairy Queen in a car, which they later found behind the restaurant.
