Gunfire erupts at southeast Houston funeral, man shot outside church

Gunfire erupted outside St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church in southeast Houston as a funeral service was underway Friday, leaving one man shot and Houston police still trying to identify everyone involved. Officers were called to the church at 8301 Brandon Street at about 12 p.m. after shots were reported during the service.

Investigators said an argument began inside the church and then spilled into the parking lot before escalating into gunfire. One man was shot and taken away from the scene in a private vehicle, but police said they had not yet located him and his condition remained unknown.

No suspect had been identified by the time of the report. Detectives were reviewing surveillance video from the church and had recovered shell casings from the scene, two of the key pieces of evidence that could help reconstruct how the confrontation unfolded and how many people were present.

Witnesses said the funeral was for Darius Phillips. They said Phillips had previously been killed after an earlier fight at a party, deepening the grief around a service that was already marked by loss. The shooting turned a place families usually associate with mourning into an active crime scene, with investigators working to separate the events inside the church from what happened outside in the parking lot.

A second local report also said the incident began as a fight inside the church and that an investigation was underway. The shooting remained on ABC13’s breaking-news feed later Friday, showing the case was still developing as police continued to collect witness accounts and video evidence.