Transactions works but query doesn't

Hi all,

Here's my coding issue: I have a transaction script that is supposed to insert into a sold_items and then update the products table--this works perfectly. However, I want to introduce a third query that will execute the transaction ONLY if there is an existing employee number. The problem is I keep getting the else statement: "Employee ID is invalid". For some reason, the query doesn't allow the other blocks of code to be excuted. Any insight ya'll could provide would be greatly appreciated.

<?php
		
require ('connect.php');

//connect
$connection =mysqli_connect($db_host, $db_user, $db_pass);
if(!$connection){
	die ("Could not connect to database: <br />".mysql_error());
}

//select database
$db_select = mysqli_select_db($connection, $db_database);
if (!$db_select){
	die ("Could not select to database: <br />". mysql_error());
}

if ( isset($_POST['sellbtn']) ) {
// Get values from form 
$emp_id =mysql_real_escape_string(htmlentities($_POST['emp_id']));
$item_id =mysql_real_escape_string(htmlentities($_POST['item_id']));
$qnty =mysql_real_escape_string(htmlentities($_POST['qnty']));


//Cancel auto commit option in the database
mysqli_autocommit($connection, FALSE);


//check to see if there is an existing employee
$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM employees WHERE emp_id='$emp_id' AND comp_id='$comp_id'");
if (mysql_query($query) == TRUE)
{

//query to update products table--this part works when I take out the first query

//query to add sold_table--this part works when I take out the first query


$success = true;

foreach( $results as $result) {
	if(!$result) {
		$success = false;
		
	}
}
if(!$success) {
	echo "Error. Please make sure all fields have been entered correctly.";
	mysqli_rollback($connection);
} else {
	echo "Sold!";
	mysqli_commit($connection);
}

} else echo "<center><p><font color ='red'>Employee ID is invalid.</font></p></center>";

mysqli_close($connection);
}

?>