Dallas police officer shot while responding to homicide; suspect in custody, police say
A Dallas police officer was shot while responding to a shooting that killed another person Thursday afternoon, the police department said in a news release.
Around 1:25 p.m., police were called to the 4800 block of Scyene Road about a shooting.
Officers saw a suspect firing into a vehicle. One person was shot, according to the preliminary investigation.
The shooter then fired at officers and officers returned fire, police said. The suspect fled the scene on foot, and officers chased him to the 4700 block of Second Avenue, about half a mile away from the scene.
The suspect fired again at officers and one officer was hit in his bullet-proof vest, police said. Both officers returned fire at the suspect.
The officer who was shot was taken to a local hospital and later released.
Police have identified the suspect as 45-year-old Juan Vincente Zavala Lopez. He was taken into custody in the 2000 block of South Valley Parkway in Lewisville on Thursday evening.
Zavala Lopez was taken to the Dallas County Jail and faces charges of murder and aggravated assault connected to the Scyene Road shooting, police said. He also faces four counts of aggravated assault of a peace officer.
Detectives determined the initial shooting between the suspect and the victim was not random and they knew each other.
The victim died from his injuries. His identity is not being released until next of kin have been notified.
This comes shortly after an incident that injured four Dallas officers early Thursday morning when a pickup truck hit an SUV that police officers were taking cover behind at a shooting scene on Community Drive. The four officers were treated at a hospital and released. A man who was shot in the morning incident was taken to a hospital in stable condition and police arrested a suspect in that shooting.
Thursday afternoon’s incident was the ninth shooting involving a Dallas police officer in 2023.
More details about the shooting will be released on Monday in a news conference with Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia.
This story was originally published September 14, 2023 at 3:06 PM.
