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A deadly SWAT standoff shook Stafford overnight, leaving two people dead and rattling a quiet neighborhood. It started just before 10 p.m. Wednesday when a man rushed into the police station saying his son, 35-year-old Adrian Mercado, had killed someone at a home on Lawrence Lane near the Sam Houston Tollway. Officers later discovered a man’s body in the backyard, wrapped in a blanket and hidden under plywood.
When police tried to go inside, Mercado opened fire, hitting an officer’s vest radio but sparing him from injury. Stafford Police Lt. Luciano Lopez said the suspect kept shooting for more than an hour before the standoff came to a deadly end. The officer who was struck was pulled from the scene safely, and no other officers were hurt. Investigators are now working to learn what led to the violence.
Police say Mercado died of a self inflicted gunshot wound.