Police have arrested a person they say fired into a pickup truck and killed a man Thursday afternoon in South Dallas before firing on officers and leading them on a chase. An officer injured in a shootout with the man is in stable condition.
Dallas Chief of Police Eddie Garcia shared preliminary information Thursday afternoon that officers were called to a shooting at about 1:25 p.m. on the 4800 block of Scyene Road and arrived to see a man shooting into another vehicle.
Garcia said that the man then began shooting at officers and they returned fire. The shooter got into a pickup and drove away and the officers pursued. At one point, the gunman started driving into oncoming traffic toward officers and they had a second shootout. It was in the second shootout, on the 4700 block of Second Avenue, that one of the officers was struck in the vest, Garcia said.
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On Friday, Dallas Police identified the gunman as 45-year-old Juan Vincente Zavala Lopez. Lopez has been charged with murder, one count of aggravated assault in the homicide on Scyene and four counts of aggravated assault on a peace officer. He is being held in the Dallas County Jail on bonds totaling more than $1 million, though not all charges had been assigned bond amounts. Zavala Lopez is also facing an immigration hold. It's not clear if Zavala Lopez has obtained an attorney.
The officer is said to be in stable condition, but no further details about the officer's condition have been released. Garcia said on X before the news conference, "Just checked in on our Dallas PD officer, he’s stable and in good spirits. Blessed are the peacemakers."
Police said the victim of the shooting on Scyene died of his injuries. His identity will be released once his family has been notified of his death.
Garcia said that the gunman and the victim likely knew each other and that the shooting wasn't random.
DALLAS POLICE
A video recorded by a witness showed the armed man talking with the driver of a white pickup. The man then walked around to the passenger side and appears to fire three shots into the cab as the driver ducks down on the other side.
Jose Aldana talked with NBC 5 and said he was eating lunch when he said he noticed two trucks driving by and thought one was misfiring. He said the driver of one truck stopped, got out and fired at the other truck.
Aldana said as he called 911 a police officer pulled up and the person then fired at the officer before driving away. Aldana said he wasn't able to see if the officer returned fire.
"As soon as he started shooting at the squad car we all got down and we just heard him drive away," Aldana said.
Aldana confirmed he saw someone inside the truck who had been killed in the gunfire and that the driver was talking with police.
Dallas Police investigators were placing evidence markers around a large section of the parking lot that had been blocked off with crime scene tape.
