A wanted sex offender was shot and killed by Dallas police Tuesday afternoon after he pulled out a gun and pointed it at officers, police say.[[312171191,L]]
Dallas police confirmed the shooting Tuesday afternoon and said officers with the Sex Offender Apprehension Program and METRO units were in the area following up on Crime Stoppers tip about the man, identified as 59-year-old Joe Cody, wanted for a parole violation on a sex-related crime.
Blankenbaker said several officers, both in uniform and others in plain clothes, were following up on the Crime Stoppers tip about the Cody's location.
Police said Cody was spotted just before 1:30 p.m. and uniformed officers moved in to contact him as he walked along the 1200 block of North Bishop Avenue.
Officers approached Cody as he neared the intersection of Wickford Street and Bishop Avenue, Blankenbaker said, and he quickly pulled out a weapon and pointed it at police.
The officers ordered Cody to drop the weapon, Blankenbaker said, but he did not comply. Witnesses told NBC 5 that Cody then began shooting before the officers returned fire.
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Blankenbaker said four officers, three with the SOAP unit and another with the METRO unit, are believed to have fired on Cody, killing him. None of the officers were injured.
At the same intersection, a red Volkswagen sedan was seen stopped at the stop sign with both the driver's-side front door and back passenger-side door ajar. Blankenbaker said that vehicle was used by the department's plain-clothes officers who were investigating the Crime Stoppers tip.
The car appears to have several bullet holes in it, but Blankenbaker could not say if those shots came from Cody or from police officers.
Blankenbaker could also not confirm if Cody fired any shots before the police fired upon him.
Police said witnesses to the shooting supported the story provided by officers at the scene.
Dallas police cordoned off a large area of Bishop Avenue with crime scene tape and closed the roadway between Colorado Boulevard and Neches Street immediately south of Methodist Dallas Medical Center while the shooting was investigated by the department's Special Investigations Unit.
NBC 5's Ken Kalthoff and Holley Ford contributed to this report.
