Five Cedar Hill police officers are on administrative leave after a shootout with a man they say was suspected of shooting a physician at a medical building Tuesday afternoon.
Cedar Hill Chief of Police Ely Reyes spoke to the media Tuesday afternoon to share preliminary information in the investigation into a shooting involving police officers.
Reyes said officers were called at 12:17 p.m. to a medical clinic on the 900 block of East Belt Line Road, where a man was reported to have a gun. One minute later, a police dispatcher reported hearing a gunshot.
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At 12:21 p.m., Reyes said an officer arrived at the medical clinic and found a person on the ground with an apparent gunshot wound. Another officer arriving at the clinic told responding officers about seeing a man armed with a long gun leaving the scene in a black four-door Chrysler.
About a block down the road, the driver of a black Chrysler crashed into another car. According to Reyes, five officers were at the scene and reported seeing the man in the vehicle with the long gun and that all of them fired at him.
"They observed the suspect inside the vehicle with a long gun and the officers discharged their firearms at the subject. Five officers discharged their firearms," Reyes said.
After the shooting, Reyes said officers removed the man from the car and provided first aid. The man, who has not yet been identified, was then taken to a hospital where he was listed in critical condition. Reyes did not say how many times the man had been shot or if they had been able to confirm which officers shot the man.
The chief did not say if the man fired on officers or pointed his weapon in their direction, but witnesses who spoke with NBC 5 at the scene said the man fired on officers first.
"After a while, he turned and opened fire on them and that’s when they opened fire on him in the car,” said witness Charles Walker. “I’ve been living in Cedar Hill for 25 years ... never have seen anything like this.”
Johnny Bellard, a barber at Good Fellas on Belt Line Road, said the suspect tried to cross the intersection. Officers tried to stop the suspect from crossing the intersection, he said. Bellard after the suspect crashed into another driver, the shooting began.
"When they started shooting, we actually took cover behind a truck that was in the driveway. I ended up like smut on me and stuff. I had tire marks all up on my arms, because the bullets were just flying," he said. "It was just a big adrenaline rush. A lot of bullets flying at the time. It was crazy, so we just took cover, because we didn’t want to get hit by any stray bullets."
Police said the man had a long gun when he was removed from the vehicle. A long gun was visible on the ground from video shot by Texas Sky Ranger Tuesday afternoon (below).
The driver of the vehicle involved in the crash with the shooting suspect was hospitalized with minor injuries. The doctor from the medical clinic was also hospitalized and was listed in stable condition.
Police have not yet revealed a motive for the shooting or said whether the gunman and the physician knew each other.
Reyes said there are multiple videos to be reviewed in the investigation, including both body cameras and dashboard cameras, but that they have not been able to look at them.
The chief said there are going to be two concurrent investigations into the use of force, one by the Dallas County Sheriff's Department with oversight from the Dallas County District Attorney's Office and an administrative investigation handled by the Cedar Hill Police Department's Professional Standards Division.
Reyes said the five officers involved in the shooting are being placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, which is standard protocol.
CEDAR HILL SHOOTING
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