By Mihir Zaveri
Houston Chronicle
HOUSTON — Within weeks, new signs on a courthouse annex in Baytown will bear the name of the Harris County lawman whose ambush and murder there earlier this month sparked a massive manhunt that sent law enforcement in Houston reeling.
At an emotional meeting Tuesday with dozens packed into the Harris County Commissioners Court chambers, the commissioners voted to name the courthouse annex at 701 W. Baker Road after Chief Deputy Constable Clint Greenwood, who was killed there on April 3.
“We’re renaming this courthouse not because of the tragedy that took place there, but because of the incredible life that Chief Greenwood led and the inspiration that he provided to so many people,” said Precinct 2 Commissioner Jack Morman, whose precinct encompasses Baytown.
Widow thankful
Greenwood’s widow, Leatha Greenwood, fought back tears as she thanked commissioners, and described the cards, texts, emails and fundraisers from friends and strangers alike that have poured in after Greenwood’s killing.
“We’re still reading the cards and letters,” she said. “It’s our intention to thank everyone, one by one, to thank the investigators, some who worked 24-hour-plus shifts to Harris County officials who vowed to seek justice, to the officers that guarded our home and Clint’s body around-the-clock and to the Commissioners Court. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for honoring Clinton Francis Greenwood.”
He was shot to death, moments after pulling into the parking lot of the annex where he worked for the Precinct 3 constable’s office.
His ambush sparked a massive, week-long manhunt for Greenwood’s killer. The investigation eventually found that the man identified as his killer, William Kenny, 64, fatally shot himself in the head about 8 a.m. April 4 near Ben Taub General Hospital with a gun just like the one he used to kill the lawman.
Help offered
The constable’s work gave investigators a long list of people with possible grudges against him, and Greenwood had reported to a county official just days before he was killed that he felt threatened by a man he had once prosecuted. Kenny was none of those.
Greenwood, 57, spent decades working as a defense attorney, prosecutor and peace officer in Harris County, earning the respect of a wide swath of the local criminal justice community. Before joining the constable’s office, he worked as a major in the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.
He also worked as a prosecutor in the Harris County District Attorney’s Office overseeing the Police Integrity Unit and as a reserve deputy for 20 years.
Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said the county was indebted to Greenwood for his long service to local government.
“Rest assured that all of Harris County will consider the Greenwood family as ours for years to come,” Emmett said to Leatha Grenwood at the meeting Tuesday. “Do not hesitate to call upon any part of this county at any time in the future, even if it’s 20, 30, 40 years from now.”
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