Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

PORT NECHES — Almost four decades have passed since Port Neches has seen an officer-involved shooting.

In that instance, an off-duty patrolman was working security at Champion’s

Rollerena, which had been broken into four times in the months leading to the shooting.

The officer found a burglar sitting in an office chair, and identified himself as law enforcement. The burglar tried to flee by climbing on top of a table to reach a hole in the roof. The officer told the burglar three times to stop, but the man continued to flee. The officer fired three shots, hitting the man in each bicep.

That was in May 1983.

A much different scene played out Tuesday in the city and resulted in the death of 21-year-old Trevon Hull of Port Arthur.

Mayor Glenn Johnson said he does not know a lot of the particulars of the shooting but supports the police 100 percent.

“While I don’t have a lot of details of what happened, I’m proud of the way they protect the residents of Port Neches,” Johnson said.

Mark Durham works close to where Hull was shot while allegedly trying to flee police officers in a stolen vehicle.

Durham, director of the Effie and Wilton Hebert Library, believes it is difficult for the family of the man killed, as well as the officers involved, their families and the department.

“It has to be incredibly tough,” he said, adding he does not know much in terms of details of the shooting. “Obviously it’s an unfortunate event. No one wants to see someone die — not the officers, not the family. I think we all feel for everybody.”

A Facebook account listed for Trevon Hull noted he left Port Neches-Groves High School in 2019. An official with the district said the last time he was enrolled there was in 2017.

Port Arthur Newsmedia has reached out to a family member of Hull but had not heard back as of Wednesday afternoon.

Police were called to Merriman Square Townhomes in reference to a suspicious vehicle around 7 a.m. Tuesday. While there they found a man wanted on a warrant. The man tried to flee and crashed a stolen vehicle into a police unit.

He exited the vehicle with a handgun and two officers fired their weapons at the man.

The man, later identified as Hull, died from his injuries.

The Texas Rangers, which are a division of the Texas Department of Public Safety, is investigating the case.

The vehicle Hull was in was reported stolen from Galveston.

Port Neches Police Chief Paul Lemoine said the department does see burglaries where people leave their guns in their car and people from inside the city and out of town break into the vehicles and steal firearms.

Law enforcement is aware that burglars may be armed, he said.

Hull was known to have had encounters with police.

Justice of the Peace Brad Burnett said an autopsy is scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday and will be witnessed by the Texas Rangers.