Officer hurt, gunman dead after hours-long standoff in Plano

PLANO, Texas - An hours-long standoff at an apartment complex in Plano ended with an officer injured and a suspect dead.

The incident started just before 11 a.m. Thursday at the Camden Legacy Creek Apartments in the 6400 block of Ohio Drive.

Police came out to the apartment for a welfare check. Officers were immediately met with gunfire. One officer who was still inside his squad car was hit by a bullet.

It began with a phone call to dispatch. The man on the other line said things that police considered “concerning.” When officers responded to check on him, he opened fire.

Audra King was watching from her window as Plano police lined her street.

“It’s a little scary because it’s really close to home,” she said.

Plano Officer David Tilley says it began with a call from a man who sounded distressed.

“Much of the stuff he was saying was very concerning to the call taker who received the call,” he said.

Police responded with a welfare check. But as one of the officers approached the building in his squad car, the man started shooting.

“We determined it was the individual who had called 911 was up on his balcony and shot at a squad car and hit his squad car and hit him as well,” Officer Tilley said.

The shooter then barricaded himself inside of his apartment for several hours while Plano police crisis negotiators tried to calm him down.

“They were successful in doing so for a while, and then they lost contact with him,” Tilley said.

Around 3 p.m., police say the man walked outside and shot himself. He was pronounced dead a short time later.

King captured a video of the injured officer’s vehicle being towed away. The back window was covered in tape.

“I just recently moved here,” she said. “I’m young, single. This is my first time by myself so it’s put a lot of fear in me.”

The veteran patrol officer is expected to be okay.

And while it’s still unclear what the shooter was going through, Tilley says he understands it’s been a tough year.

“We recognize the fact that we’re dealing with a pandemic, we’re dealing with people who have lost their jobs. They’re going through stresses that maybe they didn’t normally or wouldn't normally be going through. Not to mention we’re coming up on the holidays,” Tilley said. “They rely on us. They rely on their friends to step up.”

The shooter was identified as 60-year-old Charles Michael Catlett.

The injured officer was released from the hospital Thursday evening, and is home recovering from minor injuries.