Police have arrested a man suspected of shooting two Dallas police officers following a major manhunt.
Armando Juarez, 29, is accused of shooting the cops and a loss prevention officer at around 4.30pm on Tuesday in the Home Depot in Dallas, Texas, before fleeing in a white Ford truck.
Juarez was detained on Tuesday evening after a high-speed chase and is now in custody.
.
Armando Juarez, 29, is accused of shooting the cops and a loss prevention officer at around 4.30pm on Tuesday in the Home Depot in Dallas, Texas, before fleeing in a white Ford truck. He is seen in a police mug shot released before his arrest, and in store surveillance camera video
The white Ford truck cops say Juarez used to drive away from the Home Depot in Dallas following the incident. It is seen here in surveillance camera footage released by Dallas PD
Dallas Police Department said on Tuesday evening the two officers had been taken out of surgery at Presbyterian Hospital. The condition of the loss prevention officer is still not known.
A local news channel previously quoted ‘multiple sources’ saying one of the officers had died.
A police spokesman said the two officers were called to Home Depot by the loss prevention officer this afternoon.
According to an employee, Mercedes Espinosa, the cops tried to arrest a man before ‘around seven shots’ rang out.
Espinosa then saw the police officers in a ‘pool of blood’, he told CBS News.
Police quickly named Armando Juarez as a ‘person of interest’ and dispatched a helicopter and sniffer dogs to look for him.
Heavily armed officers wearing masks were also seen searching a creek bed behind the store.
At around 9.30pm Juarez was brought into custody following a high-speed case that ended at the intersection of Lemmon Avenue and Versailles Avenue, just 10 miles away from the scene of the shooting.
The suspect pleaded guilty of stealing a car last November and was still wanted by police on Tuesday for skipping a sentencing hearing in February, according to court records seen by WFAA.com.
His grandmother, Janie Longoria, told NBC 5 she ‘backed the blue’ before adding, ‘I couldn’t believe that one of my family could have done that’.
Home Depot employees comfort one another outside the store in Dallas following the shooting on Tuesday
A Dallas Police officer walks to the entrance of the emergency room at Presbyterian Hospital on Tuesday where the three victims are being treated
Dallas cops are using a helicopter to search for the shooting suspect, who has now been taken into custody
Governor Gregg Abbot tweeted shortly after the shootings: ‘Our thoughts and prayers are with @DallasPD and the two officers shot and critically wounded.
‘Texas honors all the men and women who protect and serve our communities, and justice will be served.’
The Home Depot is off the 11600 block of Forest Central Drive in Dallas’ northern suburbs.
Governor Gregg Abbot tweeted: ‘Our thoughts and prayers are with @DallasPD and the two officers shot and critically wounded’
Dallas Police Department tweeted to confirm two officers and a civilian were injured. NBC DFW later quoted ‘multiple sources’ saying one of the officers had died