Bryan Police have released the names of the officers involved in the Friday morning shooting north of the downtown area. And one of the two men who were shot and critically injured has been arrested.
A news release from Lt. Buck Rogers states Officer William Cross fired multiple gunshots after the suspect attempted to grab the patrolman’s duty pistol.
Comments from Lt. Buck Rogers.
The suspect, Johnnie Walton Harris, Jr. of Bryan, has been charged with assaulting a peace officer and attempting to take the patrolman’s firearm. Harris remains hospitalized at St. Joseph’s along with a bystander, Juan Garcia, who was also struck by gunfire. Officer Cross sustained abrasions and was checked out at the scene.
Cross, who has been a Bryan policeman for 14 years, is on paid administrative leave along with a second patrolman, Officer Douglas Walters, who has been with the department five years.
Rogers says the the shooting took place along Martin Luther King Street near the railroad tracks west of Texas. Both patrolmen had responded to the report of a suspicious person at the Tobacco Barn convenience store at Texas and MLK. Investigators were told Harris started running after he saw Cross. A struggle occurred a short time later, followed by the circumstances that led to the gunfire.
Bryan Police and the Texas Rangers are conducting separate investigations into the officer-involved shooting, the first since 2007.