Man dies after fight with deputy's husband outside restaurant
HOUSTON (FOX 26) - A 24-year-old father, allegedly beaten by the husband of a Harris County Sheriff’s deputy, passed away last night, after taken off life support. On Sunday night, 24-year-old John Hernandez was brought to the Denny’s restaurant located on the 17700 block of the Crosby Freeway in East Harris County. According to his wife, she brought him to the restaurant for some coffee after he was drinking that night while watching a sporting event.
A security camera captured the last moments of Johnny Hernandez's life. His wife tries to unsuccessfully to prevent the clearly intoxicated Hernandez from leaving the restaurant. A car pulls up and a man in a red tank top confronts him for allegedly urinating outside and a fight ensued. But who started it?
"Nobody saw it. Just his wife and the man's kids," said an eyewitness who asked not to be identified.
You see the fight start just out of view of the camera. Our eyewitness says the older man quickly overpowered Hernandez and put him in a choke hold.
"I told him to stop, stop it and he never did it, even when his wife came after the fight started, he didn't do it," she said.
According to the sheriff's office, the man's wife, who was off duty from the sheriff's office called for help, then helped restrain Hernandez. When he stopped resisting, they stopped restraining him and that's when they noticed he wasn't breathing. The sheriff's office says she tried to administer CPR until an ambulance arrived. The deputy's husband was questioned and released at the scene. Hernandez's members say he was brain dead at the hospital and they took him off life support. Now, says one woman, who also doesn't want her face shown, they want equal treatment under the law.
"Justice. I want justice for him. That's why I'm speaking out. I don't want them to feel like they have the power to do stuff like that," the woman said.
The sheriff's office is investigating. They will review all the reports including an autopsy report and then turn the case over to the district attorney's office.