One man is dead after police responded to a domestic violence call in Richardson early Sunday morning.
The incident occurred in the 1500 block of Fair Oaks Drive, where a woman was reportedly being assaulted by her boyfriend.
One of the responding officers discovered the suspect in the garage of the home holding a large knife. Police say the officer repeatedly told the suspect to drop the weapon, but he refused and began walking through the backyard toward a female officer, who retreated and backed away.
The suspect then made his way to a pickup truck parked in the rear driveway. He reportedly reached inside the vehicle and then spun around suddenly, brandishing the knife in a “threatening manner,” according to the police report. The female officer fired her gun once, striking the suspect in the upper body.
Officers on the scene rendered emergency medical assistance until paramedics arrived and transported the suspect to the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
Police did not comment on whether the victim who was the subject of the domestic violence call sustained any injuries.
The officer involved in the shooting has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation as per routine procedure. The officer has served on the Richardson police force for two years.
In neighboring Dallas, police continue to grapple with a high number of aggravated assaults. The City of Dallas crime analytics dashboard shows that 3,935 aggravated assaults have been reported in Dallas this year as of August 25. Of that number, 1,139 were acts of family violence.
Efforts to fight crime have been hindered by a chronic shortage of police officers. The Dallas Police Department fields only around 3,000 officers, despite a City analysis that recommends about 4,000 for a jurisdiction of its size. In addition, this fiscal year, DPD has been operating on a budget of only $654 million, far less than the budgets of police departments in other high-crime jurisdictions like Chicago and New York City.