Lawman with Ties to FLDS Trials in San Angelo Injured in Houston Gunfight

HOUSTON, TX — A law enforcement officer injured in a gunfight in northeast Houston has ties to a San Angelo case over a decade ago.

According to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Captain Wes Hensley and Sergeant Mark Rychen from his office’s Fugitive Apprehension Unit, were shot and wounded while serving an arrest warrant on 25-year-old Daniel Trevino. Trevino was wanted for violations of a protective order preventing him from contacting his ex-girlfriend.

Many in Tom Green County know one of those lawmen from the Texas Attorney General’s office who was injured. In 2008, Captain Hensley was assigned to aid the Texas Rangers in this region as they put together the cases against leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS, in Schleicher County. Texas Ranger Nick Hanna, who led the investigation, frequently mentions Hensley’s contributions towards the successful State of Texas investigation and prosecution of many of the church’s leaders from 2008-2010.

Back then, Hensley was regularly seen on local news going into or out of the Tom Green County Courthouse. The State prosecuted 16 cases of child sex abuse during the FLDS trials.

According to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, five agents from the Texas Attorney General’s office and two HCSO investigators were serving a warrant on Trevino at 12:15 p.m. Dec. 11. Upon entering the residence, Trevino opened fire on the officers and the lawmen returned fire.

Two AG agents and one HCSO investigator were struck by gunfire. The two State AG officers were rushed to Houston’s Ben Taub Hospital. There, news reports say one was treated for a bullet wound in the right leg and the other suffered gunshot wounds in the cheek, torso and ankle. The State Attorney General’s spokesman, Mark Rylander, said both officers’ injuries were non-life-threatening.

KHOU reported that Trevino had a violent criminal history since 2011. He had been arrested 11 times this decade for crimes ranging from drugs, weapons possession, theft and assault. He had served time in prison twice.

After release from prison the second time in May 2018, KHOU reported that Trevino was arrested during a violent, jealous rage against his then-girlfriend. Records allege he assaulted his girlfriend twice within the past three months.

The protective order the officers were enforcing Dec. 11 when the shootout happened was signed the first week of December. According to the order, the ex-girlfriend feared for her life after Trevino head-butted her in a bar. Three months earlier, he pointed a gun towards her face as he accused her of cheating on him. Court documents say he threatened to kill her and her son, and told her “anyone comin’ through this door is gonna die.”

After the gunfight, Trevino barricaded himself inside the home for several hours with a Houston Police Department SWAT team negotiating his surrender. Trevino fired on officers at least three shots more during the standoff. By 6:15 p.m. that same evening, officers found Trevino dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Hensley was still in the hospital recovering the next day and received a visit from the Attorney General.

"I know that all Texans join me in rallying around Capt. Hensley," KPRC-2 quoted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton saying. "It was really encouraging for me to just hear their stories and what they went through to survive and really just meeting heroes among us."

“This is an officer who has a great personality and a great sense of humor. It is that sense of humor that will expedite his healing process. We’ve here to report that his spirits are great,” Rylander told KTRK-13.

Hensley has served 15 years as the head of the Fugitive Apprehension Unit for the TAG.