A burglar alarm went off at a business in southwest Amarillo, Texas, in the early hours of Saturday, and police were quickly dispatched in response to the alarm., according to KFDA.
The officers spotted a man leaving the scene, and upon questioning learned he had warrants out for his arrest. Unfortunately, an attempt to detain him resulted in a brief shootout that sent the suspect and one of the officers to the hospital.
The suspect attempted to run away while one of the officers tried to subdue him with a taser, but that only prompted the suspect to pull out a handgun and open fire at the pursuing officers, striking one officer in the foot.
An APD officer is injured after an early morning officer involved shooting in south Amarillo https://t.co/pjfsgoSWAa
— Amarillo Police Dept (@AmarilloPD) August 31, 2018
Non-life-threatening injuries
The officers returned fire on the suspects and struck him as well. Both the officer and suspect were transported to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
KAMR spoke with Cpl. Jeb Hilton of the Amarillo Police Department to confirm the early details of the shooting, which occurred about a block or two away from the business whose burglar alarm had prompted the dispatch of the officers.
Hilton reiterated that officers had spotted the suspect walking away from the business and stopped to question him. He further confirmed that the suspect had warrants out, that he tried to run and that a shootout had occurred, injuring both the suspect and an officer.
Authorities investigating
Both the APD’s Special Crimes Unit and the Texas Rangers are investigating the incident.
The owner of the Outdoor Elements Sports store to KAMR that it was his business’ alarm that had gone off, and revealed that it had also gone off around the same time Friday morning, when two bicycles had come up missing.
The Special Crimes Unit is investigating to see how much and what, if anything, was stolen from the sporting goods store in the Saturday morning incident.
[show_poll poll_id=777]
This suspect thought he could burglarize a sporting goods store in the early hours of the morning, and then thought he could run away from the police and engage in a shootout with them to make his escape, but he was wrong.
Hopefully both of the wounded individuals make a full recovery so the officer can quickly get back to work and so the suspect can be held fully accountable for his criminal actions.