By JAMIE STENGLE
The Associated Press
DALLAS A man accused of fatally shooting a Dallas police officer and wounding two others was targeting officers, the police chief said Friday.
“Our officers were targeted for nothing more than the uniform they wear and for the brave and honorable job that they do,” Chief Eddie Garcia said during a news conference.
Garcia said the suspect approached Officer Darron Burks on Thursday night while he waited in a parking lot between calls, talking to him briefly and recording the encounter before pulling out a handgun and “executing” Burks as he sat in his car.
When a dispatcher noticed an unusual transmission from Burks, other officers went to check on him just after 10 p.m. The responding officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect at the scene and two of the officers were shot.
The three officers were taken to hospitals, where one of them died. Police said one of the officers has since been released from the hospital while the other is in critical but stable condition.
The suspect fled the scene and was pursued by other officers to Lewisville, Texas, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Dallas, police said. The man then got out of the vehicle with a long gun on Interstate 35 and was shot by officers around 10:35 p.m., authorities said. He died at the scene.
“Dallas has lost a hero,” Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said in a statement Friday.
He said officers do dangerous work with “grace, honor, respect, humility and extraordinary courage” so that “the rest of us can sleep peacefully.” He said the attack on the three officers “is nothing short of an attack on our city, our families, and our way of life.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said on X that the state was grieving with the officer who was killed, and he was praying for the “swift recovery” of the injured officers.
The investigation is ongoing, the Dallas police said, adding that flags at city facilities will be flown at half-staff.
”Our department is hurting,” department spokesperson Kristin Lowman told reporters early Friday. “We have officers who are injured, who are in the hospital, and we lost one of our own.”
Burks joined the force recently after teaching math at a high school for about 17 years.
Burks taught at Texans Can Academy, a charter high school, in the Pleasant Grove community in Dallas from June 2006 to February 2023, where he was “not only an excellent educator but also a mentor to countless students,” Tina Shaw, the school’s principal, said in a statement.
“His commitment to serving others, both as a teacher and as a police officer, exemplified his dedication to making a positive impact on the lives of those around him,” Shaw said.
Christian Menefee is the attorney for Harris County, which includes the Houston area. Menefee said he and Burks had been members of the same fraternity in college.
“He was a man of great character, with a servant’s heart that knew no bounds,” Menefee said in a statement.
