HOUSTON – A police substation and municipal court building has been decontaminated after a suspicious powder was brought inside Thursday.
The City of Houston Municipal Courts location at 8300 Mykawa will resume normal operating hours Saturday for jail arraignments. All other court appointments will be back to normal on Monday.
Anyone unable to attend court during the temporary transition to 1400 Lubbock, will have until Tuesday, May 18 to come in person to resolve or reset their court date.
Two women carried a trash bag into the building in southeast Houston Thursday afternoon and said whatever was inside was making them sick. They said they found the bag inside a house they inherited. The women told officers that a rival relative sprinkled white powder around the house and into the trash bag.
"When the investigator opened the bag to look, he immediately began complaining of a burning throat, bleeding nose, runny nose," said HPD spokesman Kese Smith. "He was in distress.
That investigator, the two women and four other people were taken to an area hospital where they were treated and released.
Sixteen jail inmates were in the building and were temporaily moved to another location while the substance was investigated.
Hazardous materials crews responded to clear out the substance. Crews also went to the house where the whole thing started but didn't find anything hazardous inside.
