‘I Absolutely Wish I Hadn’t Called’: Texas Deputies Unloaded Guns Into Innocent Black Woman After Neighbor Called 911 to Report Possible Break-in. Now, She’s Suing

Posted by Carlos Miller | Published on: June 6, 2025

Reprinted by Sunny Imanche on June 7, 2025

It was 1:30 a.m. when Eboni Pouncy and her friend arrived at the friend’s apartment before the two Black women realized they had left the keys at the restaurant where they had been dining, which was about 30 minutes away within the Houston metropolitan area.

Rather than call a locksmith, they decided to remove a screen from the front window of the second-floor apartment and break a lower window pane to open the door so they could enter the apartment, then pay to repair the window the following morning.

However, a neighbor who heard the sound of shattering glass called 911 to report an intruder, which led to two Harris County sheriff’s deputies arriving at the apartment with their guns drawn about an hour later. One of the deputies banged on the door and announced “sheriff’s office” a single time before both deputies stepped off to the side.

Meanwhile, Pouncy, who was 28 at the time, approached the door holding a legally owned firearm at her side, pointing it downwards, following basic gun safety protocol, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Devon M. Jacob.

The two deputies, Christina E. Ray and Leslie E. Tovar, panicked and opened fire through the window, shooting multiple times while Ray yelled at Pouncy to “drop the gun.”

After shooting multiple rounds, both deputies reloaded their weapons with fully loaded magazines, and Tovar continued shooting, emptying the rounds from the second magazine.

Still in a panic, the two deputies then ran downstairs and away from the building. Neither deputy remains employed by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, and Tovar was arrested for DWI in March in a case that remains pending.

Fortunately, Pouncy survived the shooting after being struck five times but was left with permanent injuries as well as post-traumatic stress syndrome, which has affected her mental health and is very common among police abuse survivors. 

“What happened to Eboni Pouncy is a horrifying example of the dangers Black Americans face when interacting with law enforcement,” Crump said in a statement to the media.

“Eboni was lawfully inside her friend’s apartment, posed no threat, and never had the chance to understand what was happening before she was shot five times by deputies. We must hold these deputies and the department that empowered them accountable.”

The lawsuit accuses the two deputies of violating Pouncy’s Fourth and 14th Amendment rights and Harris County of negligence in training its deputies.

Last year, Crump compared the shooting to the shooting death of Breonna Taylor in Missouri, an innocent Black woman killed in a botched raid.

‘I Absolutely Wish I Hadn’t Called’

The incident took place on Feb. 3, 2024, after Pouncy and her friend had dinner in Katy, a city just outside Houston. 

After realizing they had left the keys at the restaurant, Pouncy’s friend chose to break into her apartment, knowing it would cost $60, which they believed is what a locksmith would have charged.

But the sound of breaking glass alarmed their neighbor, Robert Mitchell, who called 911, thinking a burglar had broken into the apartment, placing his neighbors in danger. 

But he now regrets calling 911.

“I was sitting on my couch, and I just started hearing glass breaking,” Mitchell explained to WTRK-TV last year. “I heard (the sheriff’s office) knock on the door, nobody responded, and then maybe five seconds later I heard a gun.”

“I wish I hadn’t called, but at the same time, it’s like I really didn’t have a choice because I was thinking about not only my safety and my son. I was thinking about her safety and her son as well.”

Pouncy said they heard the knock but did not hear the deputy saying they were from the sheriff’s office, so she approached the door with her gun by her side as a safety precaution, which is not unusual in a state where 36 percent of residents own at least one gun.

“We got into the house. We were watching TV. There was a knock at the door at that time, and I got up, and I grabbed my gun, and I went to go greet who was at the door,” Pouncy told KTRK-TV last year.

“Because the window was broken, and I believed I was taking safety precautions at that time of night, and so I was just trying to do the right thing,” she added.

But she was shot multiple times within seconds. And her friend was handcuffed and forced to lie on the ground as rain poured down.

“I got up off the ground after I had prayed, and I walked to the door, and I held onto the rails, and I just made my way down,” Pouncy told KTRK-TV.

According to the lawsuit obtained by Atlanta Black Star:

Prior to and while being shot, POUNCY never saw, heard, or spoke to RAY or TOVAR. 

Before and while being shot, POUNCY never threatened or otherwise indicated that she was a threat to anyone. 

Prior to and while being shot, POUNCY never raised her handgun from its original position. 

Prior to and while being shot, POUNCY never assumed a shooting stance. 

Before and while being shot, neither RAY nor TOVAR had any information to determine one way or the other whether POUNCY was lawfully in the apartment.

Watch the video below.

No Charges Against Deputies

The case went before a grand jury, but no charges were filed, according to Jacob, one of the attorneys representing Pouncy.

“They were no billed by a grand jury,” explained Jacob in an email conversation with Atlanta Black Star.

“That does not mean that they were cleared of wrongdoing. It just means that they are not going to be criminally prosecuted.”

The two deputies are no longer employed at the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, a spokesperson told Houston Public Media without elaborating when they stopped working for the agency.

However, they both made more than $63,000 last year which is more than they made in 2023, according to OpenGovPay, indicating they worked the entire year of 2024.

Meanwhile, Pouncy is still recovering from her injuries, including nerve damage and drop foot, a condition that makes it difficult to lift her foot, affecting her ability to walk.

Last year, local media reported she was using a walker to get around, making it difficult to care for her then-1-year-old baby.

“Breathing too hard, laughing. Everything hurts,” she told KTRK-TV at the time. “I’m not able to be as attentive with my baby. She’s only one. So that’s probably the hardest part.”

Pouncy still has a bullet lodged in her right thigh and has suffered mentally as well, the claim states.

The bullets that RAY and TOVAR shot into POUNCY’S body caused serious and disabling emotional injuries, including but not limited to PTSD; paranoia; stuck in the fight or flight mode; severe flashbacks; the constant smell of gun smoke; fear of law enforcement, loud noises and knocks at the door; feelings of self-doubt, unworthiness, and of being an outcast or freak show; distortion of reality in that POUNCY is unsure if she is alive or dead; social anxiety; an inability to trust people; a lack of ambition and hope; and self-neglect and depression.

“This is not just about two deputies, it’s about a department that trained them to respond with violence instead of restraint,” attorney Jacob said in the statement to the media.

“We are seeking justice not only for Eboni but to change the dangerous practices that put lives at risk every day.”