LANCASTER, Texas (AP) _ A prayer vigil is planned today in Lancaster over the shooting death of a police officer as he answered a domestic disturbance call in which two other men also died.
Officer Craig Shaw was gunned down late Sunday. The suspected gunman who also died — was the son of Dallas Police Chief David Brown.
Investigators say David Brown Jr. died in an exchange of gunfire with Lancaster police. Shortly before the shootout, Brown Jr. is believed to have randomly shot and killed a man named Jeremy McMillian.
Tapes of 911 calls indicate the younger Brown’s live-in girlfriend, Misty Conaway, called Lancaster police to their apartment Sunday morning, seven hours before the shootings. She said Brown was having “a psychotic breakdown” and had hit her.
Conaway didn’t file a formal complaint, but she and her children were taken to the police station. Brown Jr. was not arrested.
DALLAS (AP) _ The new Dallas police chief has issued a statement to his police force as he faces one of the worst tragedies that could befall a law enforcement officer: living with the knowledge that his dead son was a cop killer.
Just seven weeks after being sworn in as leader of the Dallas police force, David Brown learned on Father’s Day that his 27-year-old son gunned down a suburban officer in a weekend shootout with police.
Investigators say 37-year-old Lancaster officer Craig Shaw was killed Sunday just minutes after Brown’s son fatally shot a stranger in what authorities say was a random attack.
In his statement to his officers, Brown acknowledged that the past few days had been “troubling and emotional.” He offered condolences to the families of the two men his son killed.
In his words, “My family has not only lost a son, but a fellow police officer and a private citizen lost their lives at the hands of our son.” He adds, “That hurts so deeply I cannot adequately express the sadness I feel inside my heart.”
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