New details emerge after officer wounded and motorist shot dead

By S.K. BARDWELL
Copyright 1997 Houston Chronicle

A minor traffic altercation apparently started a series of events
culminating in a gunbattle that left a motorist dead and a
Houston police officer critically wounded, police said.

Information that surfaced Tuesday about the Monday episode
contradicted much of what police first said about the shootout
and raised nearly as many questions as it answered.

Houston police Officer Gerald Goines, 32, remained in serious
condition Tuesday in Hermann Hospital, where he was interviewed
by homicide investigators.

Goines exchanged gunshots Monday afternoon with 24yearold
Reginald Dorsey, who died from his wounds later Monday.

Trinnis Durant, 22, who was a passenger in Dorsey's car, was
released from jail Tuesday and probably will not be charged,
officials said.

"It was horrible," Durant said as he left police headquarters.
"It was the worst situation in my life."

Although Durant acknowledged the shootings began over a traffic
altercation, he declined to go into detail. A woman accompanying
him said police instructed Durant and his companions not to speak
to the media.

Goines, an undercover narcotics officer, had finished an
investigation when he and Dorsey encountered one another, HPD
spokesman Jack Cato said Tuesday.

The two drivers first saw one another, Cato said, at the
southbound entrance to Loop 610 from the Southwest Freeway. It
was there that Dorsey, driving a Chevrolet Blazer, and Goines,
driving an unmarked car, tried to merge into the same traffic
lane.

Police officers who spoke on condition of anonymity said Dorsey
cut Goines off, and the two drivers exchanged looks and possibly
hand signs over the incident.

Cato acknowledged that a traffic dispute had arisen, but he
emphasized that the episode did not become a police matter until
Goines saw the Blazer's passenger hand a gun to its driver on
Loop 610.

At that time, Cato said, Goines called for assistance in stopping
the vehicle, and followed it as it exited the Loop onto the
service road.

Police said Dorsey, who was lefthanded, leaned from his moving
vehicle and shot Goines somewhere along the service road near
Willow.

The two vehicles drove east on Evergreen to Newcastle, then
turned south again, police reports said. The reports said Goines
and Dorsey exchanged gunfire at Newcastle and Braeburn, where
Dorsey was wounded.

The police report on the incident said Dorsey's vehicle was
stopped about two blocks later by Goines and other officers who
had responded to Goines' call for assistance.

Witnesses said Goines was unconscious when his unmarked car
crashed into a patrol car on Newcastle between Braeburn and the
intersection with Darsey/Pine.

Cato said the wounded officer stopped his car before firing on
Dorsey's vehicle in the 7900 block of Newcastle. This
contradicted his own comments Monday, when he described the
incident as a "running gunbattle in cars."

HPD policy prohibits officers from firing their weapons from or
toward a moving vehicle.

Durant said Tuesday that he and Dorsey were aware Goines was
armed but did not know he was a police officer. Cato, however,
said Goines' statement to homicide investigators indicates the
officer never drew his weapon until after he was shot.

Cato suggested that what Durant and Dorsey mistook for a gun in
the officer's hand was the radio with which he was talking to
police dispatchers.

Left unanswered Tuesday was the question of whether Goines knew a
3yearold girl was riding in the back seat of the Blazer when he
fired on the truck.

The girl was hit by flying glass during the shootout, according
to police, and was treated for minor injuries before being
released to her family.

Cato said the investigation into the matter was preliminary
Tuesday, and that the many questions raised probably will be
answered in the days to come.

One substantial piece of evidence, tapes of the radio calls
Goines made during the incident, was still being retrieved
Tuesday, Cato said.

Investigators spent many hours Monday and Tuesday collecting
physical evidence such as shell casings from various spots along
the roadways, and Cato said that evidence so far supports Goines'
version of what happened.