Man fatally shot by officer after firing at police in Fort Worth standoff is identified
The man who was fatally shot by police during a standoff at a northwest Fort Worth home on Jan. 30 has been identified as 35-year-old Nicholas Scott Sides.
According to police, Sides fired multiple rounds at Lake Worth police officers during a traffic stop around 4:15 p.m. and then sped away. A chase ensued, and the suspect stopped in the driveway of a house in Sansom Park and fired at officers again before continuing the chase into Fort Worth, authorities said.
Sides barricaded himself inside a house in the 1700 block of Skyline Drive. Members of the Fort Worth Police Department’s SWAT team and Crisis Intervention Team responded to the home around 5 p.m., according to the 911 call log.
Investigators said they believed the house on Skyline Drive where Sides ended up 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. The address is listed on the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s website as Sides’ home.
The standoff lasted for several hours. During that time, Sides threw fireworks from inside the home. Footage captured by Star-Telegram media partner WFAA-TV’s helicopter shows the fireworks exploding on the lawn.
Officers tried to negotiate with Sides and deescalate the situation, Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes said at a news conference shortly after the shooting.
Sides eventually came out of the house and held a handgun to his head, police said. He then fired at officers as they pleaded with him to put the gun down, Noakes and Lake Worth police Chief J.T. Manoushagian said at the news conference. A Fort Worth SWAT officer returned fire and shot Sides in the torso.
Sides was given medical attention at the scene and taken to John Peter Smith Hospital. He was pronounced dead shortly before 9 p.m., according to the medical examiner’s website. A ruling on Sides’ cause and manner of death are still pending results of an autopsy.
No officers were injured during the incident. When asked why he thought Sides 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 Fort Worth and Lake Worth police departments plan to release 911 audio and body-camera footage of the shooting at a news conference on Thursday morning, Feb. 6.
