A Houston police helicopter crashed Saturday, killing one officer aboard and critically injuring the other, both on a mission that might have been "a bogus call," officials said.
A pilot and tactical flight officer were inside the chopper when it crashed at an apartment complex around 2 a.m. local time. Both were flown to a hospital where the tactical flight officer died, police Chief Art Acevedo said at a news conference.
The department later tweeted the officer who died was Tactical Flight Officer Jason Knox. He is survived by a wife and two young children, who were at the hospital along with his parents and in-laws, Acevedo said.
The helicopter was supposed to assist with a search for bodies in a nearby bayou, which was prompted by a tip that the police chief characterized as "probably a bogus call — we don't know."
The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration will investigate, Acevedo said, while the police department conducts a parallel homicide investigation.
Acevedo noted that shots rang out across the street from the scene at around 3 a.m. Six people were taken into custody, he said. Acevedo stressed that police had no information indicating the helicopter might have been taken down by hostile action.
"Jason will be missed but we will carry him in our hearts and in our memories. We will forge ahead as a department & as an Air Unit, because Jason would demand it of us. When knocked down this man always got back up," the chief said in a statement.
The pilot, identified in a department tweet as Senior Police Officer Chase Cormier, was "very banged up," but police were hopeful he would survive.
Investigators didn't know what caused the crash. There were no injuries to anyone on the ground at the apartment complex.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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