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The Texas Rangers are investigating the fatal shooting of a man known to the Rockwall Police Department.
Police said they were called to an apartment complex in the 300 block of Lake Meadows Drive about 12 p.m. Thursday on a domestic violence call involving an aggravated assault.
Footage from SKY4 shows a heavy police presence with numerous evidence markers on the ground around the vehicles.
A witness, who asked that FOX 4 not use his name, watched from his Bent Creek apartment window as a man identified by family members as Jose Reyes repeatedly backed into a Rockwall police SUV while trying to get out of a parking space.
“They kept telling him to get out of the car and put his hands up and he wouldn't do it,” the witness recalled. “And like I said, he just kept ramming his car into it.”
Another witness, who was watching the incident play out from a different angle, says she could see a police officer sitting inside the SUV that was getting rammed by Reyes.
“The poor cop in the car was being jammed back-and-forth from being hit constantly,” the witness said. “The guy just wouldn't give up.”
According to a Rockwall police spokesman, an officer fired a bean bag at Reyes to try and get him to stop the Mercury SUV. When that didn't work, another officer fatally shot him.
“When you've got a 2000 pound or 2500 pound vehicle coming at you, you know it can definitely cause you some damage or death,” said Rockwall Police Sgt. Jeff Welch.
Rockwall police are familiar with Reyes. Neighbors tell FOX 4 that officers were at the complex about a month ago asking if anyone had seen him.
Police say Reyes had a felony warrant out for his arrest for violating a protective order for assault on a family member. Officers located him at the complex on Thursday after responding to a 911 call from an apartment he once shared with the assault victim.
“They knew he was still in the area,” Welch said. “And just before noon this morning, officers road back down by that complex and spotted him in the parking lot.”
With Reyes now dead, the Texas Rangers are investigating. The officer who shot and killed him is on paid administrative leave per department policy.
A neighbor says she saw the woman who Reyes allegedly attacked being taken to the hospital. She says the woman was beat up pretty bad and was bleeding from the face.