In brief: Gap opens in Houston skyline

Houston – It didn’t take long – mere seconds, in fact – to create a new hole in the skyline of Houston’s medical district.

Demolition crews used high explosives Sunday morning to implode the 20-story former Prudential Building that had been a landmark of the district landscape southwest of downtown Houston since 1952.

The Prudential Insurance Co. of America built the 500,000-square-foot skyscraper to serve as its southwest regional headquarters. The M.D. Anderson Cancer Center bought the building in 1974 and made it the center’s main building in 1980 before vacating and closing the building in April 2010.

Arizona deputy fatally shot on duty

Phoenix – A sheriff’s deputy was shot and killed while answering a burglary call in the north Phoenix community of Anthem early Sunday, and other deputies shot the suspect, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said.

Deputy William Coleman, 50, and his partner found a suspect in a van with a pit bull dog at a medical building about 4 a.m., Arpaio said.

The man got out of the van and opened fire with a rifle, striking Coleman under his bulletproof vest. The deputy was taken to a hospital but doctors could not save him.

Arpaio said investigators were trying to figure out why the 40-year-old man opened fire.

“I want to see who and what his background is, what caused him to come out shooting,” Arpaio said.

Last year was one of the deadliest in recent history for law enforcement officers, with 173 killed in the line of duty as of Dec. 28, a 13 percent increase from 2010, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. Of those, 68 federal, state and local officers were killed by gunfire in 2011, a 15 percent jump from the year before.

“There seems to be a war on cops across the nation and here in Arizona,” Arpaio said Sunday.