Former Missouri City Cop Charged with Intoxication Manslaughter in Court Today

MISSOURI CITY, TX -- A former Missouri City Police Officer, who is accused of intoxication manslaughter in the death of a woman on Oct. 15, is scheduled for his court appearance today.

Stephen Cook, 45, was arrested in the death of 62-year-old Evelyn Brown after police said Cook crashed his car into the back of Brown's car that was parked on the shoulder of the Southwest Freeway.

Police said Brown was helping her stepdaughter, and grandchildren fill the empty gas tank of her stalled vehicle around 8 p.m. on Oct. 15 after they ran out of gas in the area of of the 10900 block of 59 Southwest Freeway.

Brown's car was parked behind her stepdaughter's car, who'd run out of gas.

Police said that while Brown was putting gas in the car, Cook, who was driving a Mercury Grand Marquis, clipped the back of a white van, lost control and smashed into the back of Brown's car.

When the Mercury hit the Nissan, it slammed forward into her stepdaughter's car, and crushed crushing Brown between the two cars, police said.

The stepdaughter and her 15-year-old daughter were both struck as well, but her 9-year-old son managed to jump out of the way, authorities said.

Brown, her stepdaughter and the woman's 15-year old daughter were taken a nearby hospital, where Brown later died.

Cook, who suffered only minor injuries, was treated at the scene and arrested and charged.

During an initial court appearance, prosecutors revealed that Cook reportedly admitted to police that he'd consumed 10 beers that day between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.

"My sister did not deserve that by a drunk driver," Brown's sister Kaye Harper told KPRC. "If he was a former police officer he should know better, he shouldn't drink (and) drive -- nobody should drink and drive. At some point we're going to have to enforce the rule of the law to make sure these drunk drivers can't continue to be on the road."

If he is convicted, it would be Cook's third DWI conviction.

Cook was charged with his first DWI in 2007, and he resigned from the Missouri City Police Department afterward.

He was arrested and convicted for a second DWI in Fort Bend County in 2012.

Cook has been charged with intoxication manslaughter, and two counts of intoxication assault, and is being held in lieu of $50,000 bond.

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