A suspected robber was shot by Fort Worth police early Sunday morning after he allegedly targeted a 24-hour vape shop.
Fort Worth officers were dispatched to the scene of an alleged robbery carried out by a 37-year-old man wielding a crowbar at a business located in the 6400 block of McCart Avenue at around 4 a.m. on January 7, Police Chief Neil Noakes said in a statement.
The suspect, who fled the scene after reportedly making off with several stolen goods, was tracked to the backyard of a residence in the 3200 block of Fargo Court. Police made contact there, and the suspect allegedly attacked the officers with a crowbar, according to a social media post by Charly Wilkison, executive director of Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, per NBC 5 DFW.
One officer fired his service weapon and shot the suspect in the leg.
The alleged assailant was taken into custody and given first aid at the scene. He is expected to make a full recovery. The aforementioned officer will be on leave until the Fort Worth Police Department’s Major Case Unit, Internal Affairs, and the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office finish their investigation.
No one but the suspect — who has not been identified yet — was injured during the incident.
In late December, Fort Worth police reported that a suspect armed with a machete was being sought in connection with another robbery involving a smoke shop in the 6700 block of Crowley Road, as previously covered by The Dallas Express. The same man had reportedly struck the business on Christmas Eve for the second time that month.
These two incidents occurred just over a mile from one another in South Fort Worth.
Meanwhile, burglaries in nearby Dallas reached a total of 6,070 in 2023, according to the City’s crime analytics dashboard. There have already been 74 reported burglaries, 23 robberies, and 391 thefts logged by the Dallas Police Department this year as of January 7.
DPD has struggled to curb crime rates amid a significant staffing shortage. Approximately 3,000 officers serve the department, whereas a City report recommends closer to 4,000 are needed to adequately ensure public safety. Slower response times and a creeping murder rate have attested to the dampening effects of this shortage, as previously covered by The Dallas Express.
Downtown Dallas bears the brunt, logging much higher rates of criminal activity than Fort Worth’s downtown area on a regular basis. The latter is reportedly patrolled by a special neighborhood police unit that works alongside private security guards.