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WEDNESDAY • OCTOBER 4, 2023
Five held in Stafford kidnapping incident that ended in Galveston By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
Five people are in custody following a Wednesday kidnapping that began in Stafford, wound through Sugar Land, and ended in Galveston, according to authorities. On Wednesday at around 6 a.m., Stafford Police Department received a call from the 1700 block of Pecan Land reporting that a woman had been heard screaming, followed by the sound of gunfire, according to a Stafford PD press release. Shortly afterward, a man called the department to report that his neighbor’s wife had been kidnapped.
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Man arrested in auto-cyclist crosswalk fatality in Katy By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
A Katy man has been charged in a fatal vehicle-pedal cyclist accident. On September 28, at approximately 6:46 am, the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office received a call regarding an accident involving a motor vehicle and a pedestrian in the 6000 block of Mason Road in Katy. Upon arrival, deputies learned a juvenile male was riding his bicycle in a crosswalk when he was
fatally struck by a vehicle being driven by Devin Delvalle, 20. Delvalle remained at the scene, and was fully cooperative with deputies and investigators, according to a press release from the sheriff’s department. After further investigation, Delvalle was booked into the Fort Bend County Jail and charged with motor vehicle collision involving a pedestrian or other vulnerable road user within the area of a crosswalk. At press time, a bond amount was pend-
ing magistration. This incident remains under investigation. “This is a very sad and tragic incident on both sides, for the driver, and especially for the victim’s family,” Sheriff Eric Fagan said in the release. “Drivers need to slow down and pay attention, and that’s extremely important in areas that are heavily traveled by children.” This is the second arrest in as many weeks in
Fort Bend County under the new law. Bao Giang was arrested September 22 for striking a pedestrian in the New Territory subdivision, which resulted in the victim’s death. According to the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office, it is believed to be the first arrest under the Lisa Torry Smith Act, commonly referred to as the Crosswalk Law. The law, which was Fort Bend County District Attorney Brian Middleton, is named after Lisa Torry
Smith, who lost her life to a motorist in a Fort Bend County crosswalk while walking her son to school in 2017. The law, which was enacted in 2021, makes it an offense to fail to yield right of way to a pedestrian in a clearly marked crosswalk and requires drivers to come to a full stop for any pedestrians or cyclists who are in the intersection. It is a felony offense for a motorist to cause serious bodily injury to a pedestrian legally in a crosswalk.
A year in, Sugar Land police chief strives to change department’s philosophy
When officers arrived at the scene, the victim’s husband told them his wife was leaving for work when he heard her screaming outside, according to the release. He told police he saw three men scuffling with his wife and forcing her into her own car. When the man tried to intervene, one of the assailants pointed a handgun at him. The woman pleaded for the man not to shoot her husband. The husband then received a call, and a man told him, “You need to calm down. If you call the police, you will pay.” The man then demanded a $10,000 ransom, threatening to cause injury to the wife and send a video of it to the husband. When Stafford detectives arrived, a neighbor told them that an unfamiliar black Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck had been parked nearby. The neighbor saw several men forcing the woman into her own car, and rushed outside, firing two warning shots to try to scare the assailants away, according to the release. The woman’s car and the pickup had been seen in the 200 block of Easton Ave. in Sugar Land. Detectives were able to use nearly surveillance cameras to locate the woman’s car and the pickup leaving the neighborhood together. Detectives ran the truck’s license plate, which identified the owner as Brayan Rodriguez. He was later identified as a former coworker of the woman. Using security camera footage from the area, Sugar Land police confirmed that both vehicles had been traveling together in the 200 block of Easton Ave. Sugar Land police deployed a drone and sent several officers to canvass the area, since the camera footage did not capture the victim’s car and the pickup leaving the neighborhood. Stafford detectives went to the woman’s workplace and confirmed that Ro-
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Sugar Land Police Chief Mark Poland, standing, addresses officers during a recent shift roll call. Poland is approaching his first anniversary on the job. Courtesy City of Sugar Land
By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
Mark Poland is a man on a mission. Approaching a year on the job as chief of the Sugar Land Police Department, Poland has said in public forums lately that he’s working to change the entire philosophy of the department, from a military-style “chain of command” approach to one more like a business that welcomes input from all levels. During a period of national conversation about the relationship of police forces with their communities, Poland frequently says, “Our profit is public trust.” Poland was hired by the city of Sugar Land in September 2022 to succeed Eric Robins, who had retired the previous July. Robins served the city for
three decades, the final four years as police chief, according to previous Fort Bend Star coverage. Poland previously had 30 years in law enforcement experience in Virgina, including two decades with the Loudon County Sheriff’s Office, ending with the position of undersheriff. He was one two final candidates for the Sugar Land polst in a national search conducted by an outside consulting firm. He officially began his duties on Nov. 1, 2022. Poland told the Star that since he began, he’s been trying to change the mindset of the department from a traditional, topdown approach in which those in the higher ranks simply give orders to those in the lower ranks, who are expected to follow them without question. In that model, those in the lower ranks are not expected to provide any meaningful
input into departmental decision-making, Poland said that paramilitary style, which dates from the earliest days of modern policing, is still vital in critical situations where lives are at stake. But in the routine, day-to-day operations of the department, it is an outmoded approach that needs to be adapted to today’s environment. He acknowledges, however, that it’s sometimes been an effort to get people to embrace his new approach. In the wake of the civil unrest that followed the 2014 death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and similar incidents, the Obama Administration created a Task Force on 21st Century Policing, which ultimately resulted in a 2015 report outlining “Six Pillars of Policing.” While Poland doesn’t disavow that report, he
has developed his own six pillars for the Sugar Land department. In a nutshell, they are: 1) Family First 2) Professionalism 3) Leadership 4) Growth (or training) 5) Accountability; and 6) Community. By “family first,” Poland says he means that police officers need to know that the needs of their families must always be foremost in their minds, with professional demands coming second. The other pillars all relate to how police officers (and civilian employees) should think about their roles both within the department and how they comport themselves among the citizenry. Poland says he maintains a fully “open-door policy” that encourages people from all levels within the department to voice their thoughts on how they can better do their jobs. While those recommendations may go through a
traditional chain-of-command, he said, he’s open to hearing from anyone. Those recommendations might include ways to use existing resources, or begin using new ones, Poland said. Departmental leaders then might recommend that the person making the suggestion talk with budget officials on how to go about obtaining those resources. Poland said the new philosophy extends to how police interact with people while out on the beat, always emphasizing treating people with respect. It also involves being seen in the streets of Sugar Land, making traffic stops and interventions that not only result in arrests or citations but also show people that there is a continuous police presence in the city.
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