Police dashcam video shows gunfight between man, Fort Worth officer
By: A 33-year-old man is facing charges after he shot at a Fort Worth police officer who attempted a traffic stop as part of an aggravated assault investigation, authorities say.
Police charged Devoreia Thompson, who was hit by return fire from the officer, with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the May 19 shooting. Thompson, who was a suspect in a reported assault with a firearm the day before, was receiving care Tuesday at a hospital when police held a news conference about the shooting.
Thompson remained in Tarrant County custody Tuesday afternoon on a $500,000 bond, according to online jail records. Court records do not list an attorney for Thompson.
Surveillance footage played during the conference showed a man, who police identified as Thompson, shoot another man in the shoulder May18 as the two stood in the back parking lot of a business in the 4800 block of Miller Avenue, near Martin Street.
The footage shows Thompson leaving in a Nissan sedan after the shooting. The injured man, who police did not identify, is shown walking away with blood soaking his shirt. The man was later treated at a hospital, police said.
Investigators identified Thompson as a potential suspect and entered the Nissan’s license plate number into a department system that spots and alerts officers to the locations of specific vehicles.
On May 19, the system notified police about the location of the Nissan. An officer located the vehicle and attempted a stop in the 3100 block of South Edgewood Terrace, near East Berry Street, according to police and an online incident report.
Footage captured by a responding officer’s dashboard camera shows the Nissan coming to a stop on the residential street. The video shows Thompson drawing a handgun from his waistband before the officer calls out to him and firing seven times in the direction of the patrol vehicle.
The officer, who police did not publicly identify, starts returning fire just as Thompson re-enters the Nissan, firing 10 shots. As the Nissan goes off down the street, the officer fires two more times, the video shows. Police said it was not clear to the officer whether the shots hit Thompson.
The officer then starts a high-speed pursuit of the Nissan down residential streets but does not catch up, the video shows. His patrol vehicle “sustained damage that prevented him from continuing the pursuit,” and Thompson escaped authorities, police said.
“I have no doubt that this officer would have continued to chase the suspect until he was caught,” assistant police Chief Robert Alldredge said during the news conference.
The officer, who has worked at the Fort Worth police department for a year and a half and has more than a decade of previous law enforcement experience, was treated at a local hospital for glass cuts to his left arm he suffered during the incident, police said. The officer was placed on leave after the shooting per policy, Alldredge said.
That evening, police found the Nissan parked at a house in the 5500 block of Summit Ridge Trail in Arlington, police said. Body-worn camera footage shown during the news conference shows a team of SWAT officers arresting Thompson “without incident,” police said.
Police conducting the arrest then noticed Thompson was struck by gunfire in his lower back, police said. Thompson was treated for the wound at a hospital, where he remained Tuesday.