Incident: Thursday, January 15, 2026, 15900 block of Ridlon Street, Channelview, Texas. Footage released by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office: September 18, 2026.
A woman called 911 at about 3:45 p.m. A man on her property was claiming to be a law enforcement officer and would not leave. Two Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived. He told them he was a cop. They asked for his ID. He would not produce it. He had no uniform, no badge, and no marked car. A verbal claim and nothing more. After about three minutes, the deputies used the county Language Line to get a Spanish translator so he understood what they were asking for.
He got evasive and started creating distance. Then, in the Sheriff’s words, he pulled out a handgun and exchanged gunfire with the two deputies. His gun was real and he fired it. Jose Anselmo Bonilla Urbina was struck. EMS attempted CPR. He died at the scene. No deputies were hurt. No bystanders were hurt.
Free — the opening chapterUnits Are SurroundedFive shootings in five months between members of the Soboba Indian Reservation and law enforcement in the Hemet area of Riverside County. My story about being in the middle of it. The full book is coming.Read how it starts
He is dead, so there is no case against him. Nobody else was present or charged. The shooting has not been ruled on. The Harris County District Attorney is running an independent investigation and will present it to a grand jury, which is standard there. The Sheriff’s Office homicide and internal affairs investigations are open, and the deputies are on administrative leave.
Not all of these are pretty, and this one is not. I am going to be critical here. This is the FTO and the sergeant coming out of me. I am very happy both of these deputies survived. But if one cop can take something out of what I say and improve their officer safety, then it is worth saying out loud.
From what I can tell, nobody searched this man. You have a guy saying he is a cop who cannot produce anything to back it up. You are dealing with him for minutes. He is the subject of the call. And nobody has done a pat-down. Nobody has put hands on him. Look how close she is standing to a man who has not been searched. She has a cover deputy right there. What is he doing? Why has he not snatched this guy up yet? A guy claiming to be a cop who cannot prove it is getting patted down. That is problem one, and it is not even what this video ends up being about.
Then the red flags stack up. He is refusing to give ID. He is creating distance. He is walking away. If you did not have enough red flags already, that is the one that says the fight is coming. And they still do not get hands on him. He is reaching, and a deputy is still on the phone with the language line. No Taser out, let alone a gun.
Here is where I have the real problem. He pulls a gun, and what do they do? They run. If you are in an open parking lot seven feet from a man who pulls a gun on you, you draw and you shoot him. That is how you stop the threat. There is nowhere to dive behind cover. Both deputies turn and run, and now it is a chase around a car with the man with the gun behind them. Watch the partner: he is getting his handcuffs out, sees the reach, and runs.
Second-best option, still a good one: peel to the car that is right behind them and get into the gunfight with some cover and concealment. She starts to duck to that car and then decides to run across the open lot instead. She stays in the open, she is shooting one-handed on the move, and as she rounds the back of the car she has lost all visual on a man with a gun. That is how he ends up behind them again. She reloaded, and that is a start.
Cover and concealment are great. I am not saying do not get to cover. I am saying when you are that close and he pulls a gun, you handle the problem. They are so lucky they did not get killed. Not everyone should be the police just because they passed the academy and the background. This ended well because nobody else got hurt. But that is not how you conduct yourself if you want to stay alive in this job.
Units Are Surrounded
The new book from Ray Dietrich. Five shootings in five months in Riverside County. The full book is coming - read how it starts, free.
