Texas Rangers investigating deadly police shooting in Glenn Heights

Suspect killed in Glenn Heights officer shooting

Texas Rangers are heading up the investigation into the Glenn Heights officer’s actions. But it wasn’t until Thursday that the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office, which is investigating the robbery, revealed a suspect was not only shot — but died.

GLENN HEIGHTS, Texas - The Texas Rangers and the Ellis County Sheriff's Office are investigating a deadly police shooting in Glenn Heights.

On Friday, Ellis County officials identified the suspect killed in the shooting as 19-year-old Reynaldo Antonio Franco-Nunez.

In the middle of the afternoon Friday, Feb. 9, folks on Sunburst Drive in Glenn Heights got the sense something was up.

"I was on a management call and overheard the gunshots," recalled neighbor Dafani Norman. "The first time, I ignored it. The second time, I heard like single shots. And the second round sounded like machine gunshots."

Once Norman made her way to the front of her house, she saw plenty of officers.

"By the time I made it to my neighbors, a couple other police had come out," she recalled. "And I saw a cop run out with his gun. And so I didn’t know what was going on. We didn’t know. We had a lot of speculation, but we didn’t know."

Later that day, Texas Rangers released a statement saying Glenn Heights officers responded to a robbery in progress at a home. Rangers said one of the suspects fired at officers, and there was an officer-involved shooting. However, that statement did not say whether anyone was injured.

Finally on Thursday, the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office announced, "Officers encountered individuals matching the description of the robbery suspects. An attempted apprehension of the suspects ensued, leading to an altercation in which officers discharged their firearms."

Dr. Alex Del Carmen is a criminologist who helps train law enforcement. He notes more agencies, including departments like Fort Worth, Arlington and Dallas, are quickly releasing some body camera footage of shootings involving officers.

"They basically release the body cam and dash video. That again, you know, it may be redacted. It may be edited," he said. "But they understand that there's a balance between what the community wants to know and is entitled to know, and the due process that either the officer or an individual involved in these should be given."

For now, neighbors like Norman are less concerned about all the details and more caught off guard something so serious could happen on her street.

"This neighborhood is really, really quiet," she said. "Usually, the only time you hear anything is when like they get off the school bus or stuff like that."

The officers who were involved in the shooting are now on administrative leave, as is customary during an officer-involved shooting.

The Ellis County Sheriff's Office and the Texas Rangers are collaborating on an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

Ellis County is also leading an independent investigation into the robbery.

FOX 4 reached out to both agencies asking for more clarity, but we are still waiting on those answers.