Fort Worth Officer Involved in Shootout After Whataburger Robbery

A Fort Worth police officer was injured and a robbery suspect was killed Wednesday in a shootout on the city's east side.

At about 6:26 a.m., a robbery was reported at a Whataburger restaurant at 6469 Brentwood Stair Road.

Officer Marty Stone was nearby and arrived at the restaurant a short time later. Witnesses pointed to a man the officer believed was the suspect, according to Fort Worth Police Chief Jeffrey Halstead.

Halstead said Stone believed the man was the suspect because he was either dropping or intentionally discarding fistfuls of money.

Stone followed the suspect in his patrol car into a neighborhood on Brentwood Drive, police said. The man ran to the back of a home at one point, possibly trying to enter.

Stone encountered the man in the 6400 block of Brentwood Drive near a resident's vehicle in their driveway. The man then opened fire, shooting Stone once in the upper leg.

Police said Stone then returned fire, hitting the suspect multiple times. Investigators have not said how many rounds were fired and by whom.

Residents on the quiet street who woke up to the gunfire described it as one shot followed by several others.

"We heard probably four to six shots," said Christy Taylor, who lives across the street from the shootout scene. "We immediately went to the windows to see what was going on. At that point, we saw the lights from the cop car. A few minutes later, we heard a gentleman groaning; we weren't sure if that was the officer or if that was the suspect."

After the shooting, Stone was able to return to his vehicle and apply a tourniquet to the wound by using his department-issued medical kit.

"The officer takes out the scissors, cuts his own uniform pants, applies a tourniquet on and applies direct compression to control and basically stop this bleeding," Halstead said.

About 700 officers have been trained to use the medical knits. Halstead said they were added to training after last year's Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting, as officers did not have quick access to such first-aid equipment.

"I think the application of that personal trauma kit, without a doubt, basically stabilized him immediately and he didn't have to wait for the long transport, and who knows what can happen from bleeding," Halstead said.

Stone's injury has been described as nonlife-threatening, and he is in good condition. He is an eight-year veteran of the Fort Worth Police Department and is also an Army infantry veteran, according to Halstead.

The robbery suspect, whose name has also not yet been released, was pronounced dead when he arrived at an area hospital.