HOUSTON — An off-duty Surfside police officer who was stabbed in the leg multiple times Wednesday night is expected to survive.
According to the Houston Police Department, the officer went to a restaurant in the 6100 block of Telephone Road to eat just before 8 p.m. when he saw a man exposing himself to customers and employees.
Investigators say the officer told him that he had to leave. The officer was not in uniform at the time.
As he was escorting the suspect out of the business, a fight broke out in the parking lot. That's when the suspect stabbed the officer several times in the leg before leaving the scene.
Responding HFD paramedics found the Surfside officer bleeding pretty badly in the parking lot and applied a tourniquet. The officer was taken to a nearby hospital in stable condition and is expected to survive even though he lost a lot of blood.
It's unclear if the officer was armed at the time of the attack, but shots were not fired, HPD said. The weapon used to stab the officer was not found at the scene and investigators said they don't know what kind of weapon he used.
According to Houston police, they believe the suspect could be a homeless man who is a regular at the restaurant. They said they have surveillance video of him and also know that he drove away in a silver, four-door hatchback.
Anyone with information is asked to call the HPD Major Assaults Division at 713-308-8800 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-8477.
Here's the report KHOU 11 News ran at 10 p.m. Wednesday: