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An illegal alien who's been in the U.S. since 1989 is now charged with capital murder of a beloved Houston police sergeant, and attempted capital murder against a second officer.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against 51-year-old Elmer Manzano, a longtime criminal who gunned down Sgt. Harold Preston and Officer Courtney Waller during a domestic violence call.

Ira Mehlman with the Federation for American Immigration Reform says this the result of sanctuary city policies.

The mayor has to be accountable, the county officials, the chiefs of police, they have to explain to the people in Houston and elsewhere around the country why they chose to protect people who are in the country illegally over the safety of the community, he says.

Chief Art Acevedo disputed that claim.

This is the state of Texas, where there is no sanctuary here for anyone who is hurting people. We come after people really hard, he said Wednesday. Elmer Rolando Manzano, 51-years of age, is solely the person responsible for our capital murder of a police officer.

When you stop someone for a tail light out and you have no other information, we don't expect you to be asking about immigration status. We're not the immigration police.

Manzano has had previous interactions with police and spent time in jail in both Harris County in 2002 and Dallas County in 2000. Manzano's estranged wife called police Sunday to report he pulled a gun on her and their children.

However, the chief said officers reported the incident as No crime occurred, and Manzano did nothing to prompt them to check his immigration status.

Based on what I've seen so far in our review, we did our best to deal with what we knew at the time and so did the DA's office, said Acevedo. The DA's office is ultimately the one that accepts charges, and we didn't have enough for them to accept charges.

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HPD Chief Pressed on Immigration Status of Cop Killer | NewsRadio 740 KTRH - KFI AM 640