On Monday, December 4, 2000 shortly before 7:00 a.m. Deputy Barrett T. Hill, assigned to Patrol District 1, was in his last week of training. He and his field training officer responded to a report of four men breaking into cars in the parking lot of the Glen Oaks Apartments in northern Harris County. When they arrived on the scene, the deputies spotted two men breaking into a vehicle. The suspects ran, and Deputy Hill and his training officer split up to run after each one.

Shortly after pursuing his suspect into the woods, Deputy Hill radioed his training officer that he had one man in custody. The training officer then heard gunshots and tried to contact Deputy Hill by radio. When he did not answer, the training officer called for help and dropped his pursuit to look for him. Deputy Hill was found with his handcuffs out, but his service weapon was still in its holster. He had been shot several times, at least once in the face. The shooting suspect ran from the woods across a small drainage ditch to another apartment complex. There, the suspect confronted a woman at gunpoint that was on her way to work and ordered her out of her car and fled in it.

About 10:30 a.m., the stolen car was spotted by a Washington County Sheriffs Department deputy at a tractor-supply warehouse in Brenham, about 75 miles from the shooting scene. The driver jumped out of the car and ran a short distance before being captured. A gun of the same caliber as the five shell casings recovered near Deputy Hill's body was recovered from the car in Brenham. The suspect was subsequently found guilty of Capital Murder of a Peace Officer and is currently on death row.

Deputy Hill had worked as a jailer for three years before deciding to pursue a job as a patrol deputy. His last assignment before training as a patrol deputy was at the Department's Inmate Processing Center downtown. His fellow deputies knew him as an extremely positive person who was happy with his life. He was very proud of his family. Deputy Hill is survived by his wife and two daughters, ages 18 and 7.