Fort Worth police releases video of shootout that injured officer
FORT WORTH, Texas - Fort Worth police held a news conference on Tuesday to release the video of a shootout with a suspect from earlier this month.
The shooting happened on Sunday, May 19 in the Stop Six neighborhood, in southeast Fort Worth.
A police alert flagged a car as being connected to a shooting from the day before.
An officer followed the vehicle and the suspect pulled over.
Police say the suspect raised his hands to make the officer believe he was surrendering. Within a split second the suspect opens fire.
"Hey, let me see your hands," you can hear the officer say before the gunfire began.
After the suspect opened fire, the officer shot back. During the exchange, he was hit by flying debris and shards of glass.
The suspect then led police on a chase.
"After an initial encounter, and uncertain if he’d been shot himself, this officer continued to pursue a man that just shot at him several times through a neighborhood and next to a park," said Fort Worth Asst. Chief Robert Alldredge.
The officer's patrol vehicle became inoperable after hitting a speed bump.
Later that same day, police caught up with the suspect, identified as 33-year-old Devoreia Thompson, at a house in Arlington.
Devoreia Thompson
They say he was injured from a gunshot wound to the back.
"A perimeter was established, and the suspect was observed running from the main house towards the shed in the backyard," Fort Worth police say in the video release.
Thompson was in custody within minutes.
Police also shared video of a shooting they say Thompson committed the previous day in an alleyway of a Fort Worth business. A victim shot in the arm is seen walking away from that scene.
"This perpetrator had no business conducting two unprovoked shootings in two days in our city," said Asst. Chief Alldredge.
The injured officer had been with the department for a year and a half, joining the force from a neighboring agency.
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He was released from the hospital the next day.
The investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
"That incident was fast, tense, and uncertain. For anybody that would’ve been a part of that, I’m sure the officer himself was not expecting that type of response. Whenever the suspect got out of the vehicle, however, that’s what we train for," Alldredge said.
Thompson is being charged with aggravated assault against a public servant, as well as aggravated assault from the shooting the day prior.