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Nov. 30, 2005

Mom: Gunman says he thought officer was a robber

By DEANNA BOYD
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
The parolee accused of critically wounding a Fort Worth police officer told his mother Wednesday morning that he fired because he thought he was being robbed.

"He didn’t realize it was a policeman. He was in plain clothes," said Deloris Pulce of Texarkana, describing what her son, Stephen Heard, told her in a phone call.

Pulce said she didn’t buy her son’s explanation.

"They always say what they want you to hear," she said. "He had no business having a gun. He’s on parole."

Police documents say that police officer Henry "Hank" Nava and two other officers were wearing "black raid-type jackets with the word POLICE prominently displayed on both the front and back" when they entered a home near Eagle Mountain Lake.

A woman at the home "turned and stated ... that the police were coming inside to search the residence," the documents state.

Nava was shot in the head after he opened the door to a bedroom and told his fellow officers that Heard was inside.

Pulce said Heard, the oldest of four children, is a drug addict who has wasted numerous opportunities to clean up his life.

"He was raised up in a Christian home. He knows right from wrong," she said. "I told him this morning that you need to pray for that police officer, that he doesn’t die, and (that) he’s all right.

"He said, 'I have been.'"

Heard was booked into the Mansfield Jail on Wednesday morning and has been arraigned on charges of attempted capital murder and aggravated kidnapping.