Man shot by Arlington police after firing at family and officer, fleeing in vehicle
A man shot by Arlington police Monday morning is expected to survive and face charges after he fired a gun at his family, fled police and fired at an officer, Lt. Courtney White said at a news conference.
White, a department spokesperson, said officers responded to a family home in the 3700 block of Shady Valley Drive just before 10 a.m. Monday. A family member called seeking help for a 20-year-old man during a domestic disturbance surrounding the man’s drug use.
Officers who responded to the scene had training in mental health intervention, but were not a part of the department’s Behavioral Health Crisis Intervention Team, White said at the news conference Monday afternoon.
Officers responded to the house but found he wasn’t there, White said. They found him later down the road and offered to give him a ride home, but he ran away when they asked to pat him down before allowing him in the police vehicle. He was not under arrest or detained at that point, so they allowed him to leave.
A short while later, they received two calls: one that the man tried to rob someone at gunpoint and another from his family, saying that he was trying to take a pickup truck from the house. When officers returned to the house, he fled and they began a pursuit.
During the pursuit, the man shot at an officer and then crashed into another vehicle, according to White. The driver of that other vehicle sustained non-life threatening injuries, and the man police were pursuing got out and tried to flee on foot. Officers caught up with him in a driveway at a nearby house, ordered him to drop the gun he was holding and eventually opened fire, White said.
The man surrendered with his hands in the air and an officer handcuffed him, finding that he’d been hit multiple times in the gunfire, White said. They performed first aid until medics arrived and took him to the hospital, where he is in stable condition and expected to survive.