Funeral services for Mesquite Police Officer Richard Lee Houston were held this past Thursday. Hundreds gathered at Lake Pointe Church in Rockwall to pay their respects and honor the life of the fallen officer, who was shot last Friday while responding to a disturbance outside a grocery store.
Police said that the suspect, Jamie Jaramillo, caught in the act of infidelity by his wife, shot Houston twice and then shot himself in the head. He is still in the hospital.
Mesquite Police Chief David Gill spoke at the service. He said Houston had always wanted to be a Mesquite police officer like his father.
Gill said that on the application where prospective officers are supposed to write which other departments they’ve applied to, “Richard wrote none, there is no other place, there was no backup plan. It was Mesquite.”
Officers from across the metroplex and the state came to salute and honor Houston, a twenty-one-year veteran of the police department.
Assistant Chief Doug Yates addressed Houston’s fellow officers to offer them support, and Mesquite Sergeant Cameron MacKay sang an acapella rendition of the lord’s prayer.
Houston’s daughter, Shelby, 18, gave a heartfelt eulogy and spoke kindly of her father. “You know, I knew this day would come at some point in my life. However, I didn’t think it would come so soon,” she said. “Eighteen years with you, daddy, was just not enough time.”
Shelby, who preached her first sermon two days before her father was killed, also spoke about suspect Jamie Jaramillo, the man accused of fatally shooting Houston. She told the attendees that her father had taught her faith and love, an assertion proven by her words regarding the man who allegedly killed her father.
“My prayer is that someday down the road, I get to spend some time with the man who shot my father. Not to scream at him, not to yell at him, not to scold him, simply to tell him about Jesus.”
Shelby is one of three children that Houston leaves behind.
After the public service concluded, Houston was laid to rest during a private ceremony for close family and friends.
The Mesquite Police Association (MPA) has set up a donation page to help the Houston family. Additionally, from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, the MPA will be holding a fundraiser at Kearney’s Feed Yard, the proceeds from which will also benefit Houston’s loved ones.