The past 24 hours have seen two separate police chases in North Texas result in shootouts that ended with the suspects getting shot.
In the first police chase, officers with the Fort Worth Police Department responded to the flagging of a stolen vehicle by the city’s flock camera system on Thursday at around 5 p.m. They located the car and attempted a traffic stop, which the driver allegedly ignored, per WFAA.
After following the suspect for some time and noting his allegedly reckless driving — including the alleged ramming of a police cruiser — FWPD officers decided to deploy spike strips, according to NBC 5 DFW. The suspect crashed the stolen car at the intersection of NW 28th Street and McKinley Avenue.
However, the incident was far from over.
The suspect allegedly pulled out a long gun and began using it to threaten the driver of an SUV, hijacking the vehicle.
Officers opened fire on the suspect when he was inside the SUV. The suspect exited and allegedly continued to refuse to drop the weapon. Instead, he purportedly began pointing the gun toward a nearby business, which had people in and around it.
Police opened fire again, striking the suspect and putting an end to the ordeal. The man was given medical assistance at the scene and taken to a nearby hospital, where he is currently in stable condition. No other injuries were reported.
FWPD alerted the public about the officer-involved shooting and the closure of the area shortly before 7 p.m. on social media.
“This is another example of how unpredictable, how dangerous a job of a police officer can be. Never know when you might encounter someone with a weapon, never know what someone might do with that weapon,” said Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes, per NBC 5.
A few hours later, early Friday morning, yet another police chase ended in a crash and a shootout.
Shortly before 3 a.m., officers with the Dalworthington Gardens, Midlothian, and Pantego police departments pursued a suspect — for whom there reportedly was an outstanding warrant from the Arlington area — to Midlothian. It was here that the suspect allegedly crashed into a police cruiser near an apartment complex on Ridgeway Drive near Highway 67.
The suspect then allegedly shot at the officers, who returned fire, striking him and wounding him critically. He is currently at a local hospital.
The circumstances of the chase and the officer-involved shooting are under investigation by both the Midlothian Police Department and the Texas Rangers. No further information has been released to the public.
Earlier this month, a plain-clothes officer with the Dallas Police Department was involved in the fatal shooting of a suspect, as previously reported by The Dallas Express. The officer had responded to reports of a robbery in progress at an illegal game room and scuffled with one of the alleged robbers in the parking lot. The incident is currently under investigation.
“We never want this to be the result or the outcome of any of our calls,” Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said in response to the officer-involved shooting, per WFAA. “This is a tragedy for the officer, it’s a tragedy for the suspect’s family and friends who may not have remembered the individual this way.”
Research has shown that 70% of law enforcement personnel leave the force within five years after fatally shooting a suspect. This is but one of the psychological tolls officers face that present a challenge to retention efforts amid a nationwide shortage of police officers.
DPD currently fields around 3,000 officers, even though a prior City analysis recommended that roughly 4,000 are needed to properly police the city and get police response times to reasonable levels. Despite efforts to boost recruitment by revising DPD’s tattoo policy, it is unclear if the department can close the gap due to it having a much smaller budget — only $645 million — than other high-crime municipalities.