A University of Houston student is still dealing with the costly aftermath of a police standoff after her parked car was caught in a hail of gunfire.
Her Nissan Altima was sitting in a shopping center parking lot when officers opened fire during the July 6 operation. The car was hit around 40 times, but when Abigail Trujillo asked the city to help cover the damage, her claim was initially denied because of governmental immunity.
According to TCD, Trujillo, 20, was working at a retail store inside the Highland Village shopping center when the incident happened. Her car was legally parked in the lot while Houston Police Department officers were pursuing a suspect identified as Jamarcus Spates.
Losing her car was more than just an expensive inconvenience
Spates was reportedly driving a stolen vehicle when officers cornered him, leading to a physical confrontation and an exchange of gunfire. Spates was grazed by a bullet during the incident. Trujillo’s Nissan, however, ended up taking much more of the damage.
Around 40 bullets struck the vehicle, leaving it with extensive damage to both the body and its mechanical parts.
A later investigation by ABC13 found that repairing the car was expected to cost around $20,000. For Trujillo, losing her car was more than just an expensive inconvenience.
“I use it for school, I use it for work,” she said.
Things got even more frustrating after the police operation. Trujillo’s damaged car was towed and held at an HPD impound lot as part of the investigation. She had to pay $200 herself to get the vehicle back, despite the fact that she had nothing to do with the standoff.
With the Nissan no longer usable, Trujillo had to borrow a friend’s vehicle to get to her classes and her job.
She eventually filed a property damage claim with the City of Houston, hoping to recover some of the money needed to repair her car. Instead, the city’s legal department rejected the claim, saying governmental immunity protected the municipality from liability for the damage.
Senior attorney Jeffrey Redfern of the Institute for Justice has challenged that position. According to Redfern, it conflicts with legal precedent, including a 1980 Texas Supreme Court ruling concerning compensation for innocent property that is foreseeably destroyed during police operations.
Trujillo’s situation also appears to be part of a larger problem. Records show that HPD received roughly 300 property damage claims between 2024 and early 2025. The city reportedly paid about one in four of them, leaving many people to deal with the cost of damage caused during police activity.
The situation eventually caught the attention of Mayor John Whitmire. After local media coverage and growing scrutiny, Whitmire said the initial rejection of Trujillo’s claim was the result of an administrative error and promised that the matter would be handled fairly.
There’s no formal resolution yet
But Trujillo is still waiting for direct communication and a formal resolution from the city.
For now, the student is left without a working car and with the consequences of a police operation she had no part in. Her case has also raised questions about what happens when police damage the property of someone who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Community activists hope the case will lead to a closer examination of how Houston handles these claims and whether innocent residents should be left to cover the cost themselves.
