Ex UT Arlington senior faces life in prison for wounding police officer in shootout

It took only a few seconds for a college student to shoot a police officer who was trying to serve a murder warrant, according to an assistant Tarrant County district attorney.

“You may not hear anything about the murder,” Tarrant County prosecutor Dawn Ferguson said during her opening arguments on Tuesday.

It took officers two days to track down the suspect in the murder, which occurred April 23, 2016. Three Arlington patrol officers and two Saginaw detectives were stationed at various places around the apartment as a pair of officers knocked on the front door of the residence where they believed the murder suspect, Joel Conner McCommon, 26, lived, according to testimony.

“No one came to the door,” Ferguson told the jury.

The knocking got progressively louder during the next five minutes, Ferguson said. The officers were talking about leaving when the door finally opened, Ferguson said. But as quickly as the door opened, it was slammed shut, Ferguson said.

The suspect knew that police were at his door, because of the way they were dressed and because of their weapons, but he slammed his door shut, Ferguson said.

When the door opened again, McCommon started shooting and wounded Eddie Johnston, an Arlington police officer, in the hip, Ferguson said. Johnston returned fire and was later dragged to a safer location out of the line of fire by another officer, Ferguson said.

McCommon was also shot in the exchange of gunfire, said Arlington Det. Chris Stinson, who testified Tuesday that he was at the scene of the shooting. Stinson said he could hear McCommon screaming in pain and could see the student’s toes sticking up in the air as he looked through the suspect’s apartment window.

“I requested two ambulances,” Stinson said. “One for the officer and the other for the suspect. I had put out over the radio that an officer had been shot. It was bad.”

McCommon’s attorney, Deric Walpole, countered that McCommon believed he was acting in self-defense when police arrived at his apartment. The police officers who arrived to serve the warrant never announced that they were police officers, Walpole told the jury. Walpole also said at least one officer tried to force McCommon’s door open.

Stinson also testified that the police officers never announced that they were police officers while the knocking occurred, but could not recall if someone said they were police officers later during the incident.

McCommon knew he had killed someone, but Walpole said that was also an act of self-defense. McCommon had shot and killed someone else protecting himself during a robbery attempt just days before and was rattled by the experience, Walpole said.

“The reason you are not hearing the murder case is because it was self-defense,” Walpole told the jury.

McCommon, formerly a University of Texas at Arlington senior mathematics major who said through his attorney that he later graduated from Sam Houston State University, agreed to sell some marijuana to a girl he had met online.

But instead of a girl coming to the place where the marijuana sale was supposed to take place, three men showed up, Walpole said. The three men got into McCommon’s car and one of them pulled a fake gun, Walpole said.

“He’s from Chicago and you can get away with that where guns are illegal,” Walpole said. “But if you try that enough times in Texas sooner or later someone’s gonna shoot you.”

McCommon had a real gun with him and shot Jordan Miles, 17, the man sitting in the front seat, authorities have said in the past. The two men in the back seat of McCommon’s car ran away, authorities have said.

According to a relative of Miles, he lived in a Cook County, Illinois, suburb and not in Chicago.

Those two men identified as witnesses later told police that they saw McCommon fighting with Miles just before the shooting, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

The two witnesses said that McCommon pulled a handgun and fired a single shot that struck Miles in the stomach while all four men were sitting in McCommon’s car, according to the affidavit. Walpole said all the men struggled for the weapon, but McCommon eventually retrieved the gun and left.

When police arrived in response to the shooting call, they saw Miles lying on the ground in the 200 block of Creekside Drive, holding his stomach.

Shortly after the shooting, Miles was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office. Had he lived until April 26, Miles would have been able to celebrate his 18th birthday.

The two witnesses who sat in the car’s back seat told police that Miles and McCommon began fighting inside of McCommon’s red 2006 Nissan Altima, a fight that spilled out into the street, the affidavit said.

A third witness said she saw McCommon on top of Miles while they fought, the affidavit said. One witness said he was running away and turned around to see Miles on one knee as McCommon was striking him in the back or head with his fist or an unknown object, the affidavit said.

McCommon left in his Altima as witnesses called 911 to get Miles some help, the affidavit said. Three witnesses identified McCommon from a photo array as the person who shot Miles, according to the affidavit.

Saginaw police, who were looking for McCommon, found his vehicle in the 400 block of Summit Avenue near the UTA campus, police reported. Officers from Saginaw, Arlington and UTA tried to contact McCommon, who was inside an apartment.

Shortly before 11 p.m., McCommon opened the door and fired, injuring the officer. Police returned fire, hitting McCommon, according to police.

Testimony is expected to resume Wednesday in state District Judge Ruben Gonzalez’s court.

This story was originally published March 19, 2019 at 7:40 PM with the headline "Ex UT Arlington senior faces life in prison for wounding police officer in shootout."