2 Dallas Police Officers and a Security Guard Shot Outside Home Depot

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April 25, 2018 5:58 AM

A suspect was arrested late Tuesday in the shooting of two Dallas police officers who were critically wounded outside a Home Depot, the authorities said. A Home Depot security guard was also shot, but his or her condition was not released.

The police arrested Armando Juarez, 29, after an extensive search and a chase that led them from southeast to northwest Dallas, Chief U. Renee Hall of the Dallas Police Department said at a news conference late Tuesday. Juarez is facing multiple counts of aggravated assault on a police officer and has an outstanding warrant on felony theft.

A female passenger in the truck that Juarez was driving was also arrested, the police said.

“I want to thank our Dallas police tonight,'’ Mayor Mike Rawlings said at the news conference. “They have taken a punch and they have come out fighting.”

The police did not release the names of those shot or elaborate on their conditions, but Hall did say that all three were out of surgery.

At 4:12 p.m. Central time, the Police Department received a call to go to the Home Depot in northeastern Dallas to help an off-duty officer who was there to make an arrest, Hall said. The shooting happened shortly after they arrived.

The victims were taken to the hospital by the Dallas Fire-Rescue Department.

State, local and federal law enforcement agencies assisted the Dallas Police Department in the search, Hall said. “Our hearts are very heavy,” she said.

Gov. Greg Abbott offered his “thoughts and prayers” in a tweet, saying, “Texas honors all the men and women who protect and serve our communities, and justice will be served.”

In 2016, five Dallas police officers were shot and killed at a rally against police violence by Micah Johnson, a 25-year-old Army reservist who later died in a standoff with the police. Johnson, an African-American, was hoping to single out the white officers in the ambush.

Last week, in Trenton, Florida, two sheriff’s deputies were shot dead by a gunman who ambushed them as they ate at a Chinese restaurant.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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