Police: Ballistics Tests Link LBJ Shootings To Ex-Trooper's Gun
Updated 1:18 PM CST, Wed, Jan 7, 2009
Ballistics tests confirm that a former Utah state trooper was connected to a series of rush-hour shootings in Garland and Dallas on Dec. 22, Dallas police said Tuesday.
Two people were killed and another person was injured in the shootings. Jorge Lopez was fatally shot as he waited at a red light in Garland and William Miller, a truck driver, was shot and killed a few minutes later on LBJ in Dallas. A bullet missed Gary Roberts, a tractor-trailer driver, on Interstate-635 near Plano Road in Dallas. He was injured by debris from shattered glass and needed several stiches, police said.
The test results match the bullets in the LBJ shootings with the handgun used by Brian Smith, Lt. Andy Harvey said in a brief news release. Smith died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound following a standoff in Garland the night of the shootings.
Police said Smith resigned from his position as a Utah trooper in May, had an addiction to pain killers and was wanted in connection with a North Texas crime spree.
The crime spree appears to have begun in Garland, where a man police identified as Smith jumped over a pharmacy counter and stole Oxycontin pills.
First Published: Jan 7, 2009 12:17 PM CST
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