Officer kills man who shot at police during chase and standoff at Fort Worth home, cops say
A police officer fatally shot a man who fired multiple rounds at Lake Worth police during a traffic stop, which led to a chase and the suspect barricading himself inside a house in northwest Fort Worth on Thursday evening, police said.
At the end of the hours-long standoff in the 1700 block of Skyline Drive, the man came out of the house, held a handgun to his head and then fired again at officers as they pleaded with him to put the gun down, the Fort Worth and Lake Worth police chiefs said at a news conference.
When the man opened fire, a Fort Worth SWAT team officer shot him in the torso, Police Chief Neil Noakes said. The man was given medical attention and taken to a hospital, where he died. His name has not been released.
Officers had tried for several hours to negotiate and deescalate the situation, and they fired “less lethal” rounds at the man before he began shooting at them outside the house, but those tactics didn’t work to disarm him, Noakes said.
The incident began when a Lake Worth special operations unit stopped the man for a traffic violation about 4:15 p.m., Lake Worth Police Chief J.T. Manoushagian said. The driver shot at the officers and sped away, Manoushagian said. The man stopped in the driveway of a house in Sansom Park, where he fired at officers again before continuing the chase, the chief said.
Investigators believe the house where the suspect ended up on Skyline Drive is the home of a relative. A woman who he let out of the house during the standoff is believed to be his mother, police said.
A Fort Worth SWAT team and Crisis Intervention Team and officers from multiple other North Texas departments began responding to the residence on Skyline about 5 p.m., according to a 911 call log.
“I am with my officers at the scene of this incident. They were fired upon multiple times during a traffic stop and subsequent pursuit,” Manoushagian said in a social media post shortly before 7 p.m. He said that no officers were injured, and he asked for prayers for a peaceful resolution to the standoff.
Lake Worth police said that the suspect was contained at that time and there was no ongoing public threat. About 9:40 p.m., they announced that the standoff had ended and they were working with Fort Worth police to release further information.
During the standoff, Star-Telegram media partner WFAA-TV’s helicopter captured footage of fireworks being thrown from the home and exploding on the lawn.
Asked why he thought the man had tried to evade officers, Manoushagian said the suspect was on federal probation and that he threw items that may have been contraband out of his vehicle during the chase.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office will perform an autopsy and identify the man.
The Fort Worth police Major Case Unit, Internal Affairs and the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office will investigate the shooting. Police plan to release body-camera video at a later date, Noakes said.
This was the second time Fort Worth police have fatally shot a person this year. On Jan. 15, officers killed a man who they said charged at them with knives during a domestic violence call on Westgate Drive.
Fort Worth officers also critically wounded a man who shot at them during a Jan. 9 standoff on Seafield Lane, police said.
This story was originally published January 30, 2025 at 8:51 PM.