JUST A TYPICAL SATURDAY NITE AT THE TEXAS BAR SCENE

And this wasn’t even in one of those beer bottle throwing, shit-kicking country western bars.

POLICEMAN SHOOTS WOMAN IN CLUB
Officials say two officers were assaulted while investigating fight

By Paige Hewitt

Houston Chronicle
February 28, 2011

A woman was in critical but stable condition on Sunday after being shot by a Webster police officer during a barroom brawl in which patrons reportedly attacked officers, nearly choking one to unconsciousness, police said.

A patron at Club Eden in the 500 block of Nasa Parkway summoned police to a big fight there around 1 a.m.

Police said the disturbance started when a man hit a woman several times in the head after she burst some balloons with a cigarette lighter.

Two Webster patrolmen responded to the scene and tried to break up the fight but were assaulted by patrons, officials said. The officers used Tasers on several patrons, but the brawl continued, police said.

As one of the officers was trying to arrest a woman, one or more patrons choked that officer from behind, nearly causing him to pass out, police said.

That officer drew his service weapon, and then a patron in front of him grabbed the front of his arm as the group behind him pulled him backward.

Police said one gunshot was discharged from an officer's weapon, striking the woman who allegedly had been assaulting the officer. It was unclear which officer fired the shot.

The woman was taken by ambulance to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. A second patron injured during the original incident was taken to Clear Lake Regional Hospital in unknown condition.

Police have presented the case to the Harris County District Attorney's Office, with charges against three suspects. Authorities have not identified officers or suspects involved.