Carjackers fired 9 times at Dallas officer at close range, chief says

The three men arrested Wednesday in the shooting and carjacking of a Dallas police officer fired at the officer nine times at a close distance, police said Friday.

At a news conference, police Chief Eddie García provided new insight into the shooting and shared surveillance footage of the incident. According to the chief, police believe the men traveled from Shreveport, La., to steal cars and unwittingly approached Officer Nathaniel Chapman’s unmarked vehicle a little before 1 a.m. Wednesday as he was conducting undercover surveillance in northwest Dallas.

“These individuals did not come into Dallas to just have a good time,” García said. “They came here on a mission.”

Xavier Cook, 18, Redricous Lewis, 19, and Redtravion Polk, 17, were arrested in Shreveport on charges of aggravated robbery Wednesday night, Dallas police said, and additional charges are pending. It is unclear whether they have attorneys.

The shooting was the sixth time officers have been fired on this year, and the eighth time officers have fired their weapons at people, according to García.

The shooting

Surveillance footage shows a gray sedan enter a parking lot off of Harry Hines Boulevard, just north of West Northwest Highway, and pass by Chapman’s car.

The gray sedan circles around the lot and approaches Chapman’s vehicle from behind, and two people jump out. García said they caught Chapman, a 24-year department veteran, by surprise as they demanded he get out of the car.

The video shows Chapman exiting the vehicle and raising his hands. But as a carjacker gets in, Chapman draws his gun and starts firing.

One of the carjackers is seen firing from the driver’s side of Chapman’s car while another fires from the gray sedan. As they shoot, Chapman moves toward the road while returning fire.

“You will see from the video we are lucky that Officer Chapman is alive today,” García said.

Police said Polk drove off in Chapman’s car. The video shows it backing into the gray sedan, which police said Lewis and Cook fled in.

Chapman was struck in the left leg and taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital. He was discharged later Wednesday morning, and García said he’s doing well and “ready to get back to work.”

The aftermath

The covert police car was found abandoned a short distance away, according to García. Police believe the carjackers may have figured out the car belonged to an officer when they heard the police radio inside.

“We’re surmising it was very obvious to them when they heard the radio traffic of an officer having been shot, and that’s probably one of the reasons they dumped it as quickly as they did,” García said.

The three men, who are all from Louisiana and have juvenile criminal histories, were found and arrested in Shreveport on Wednesday night. García said two pistols and a rifle recovered in Louisiana match the caliber of the shell casings from the shooting.

Lewis and Cook — whose first name was listed as Xzavier — were being held in the Caddo Parish jail Friday; Polk did not appear in jail records. García said the department is working to get them extradited to Dallas.

Chapman was conducting undercover surveillance across the street, García said, and his work had no connection to the suspects. Asked about people traveling across state lines to steal cars, the chief said it happens regularly, adding that the gray sedan was likely stolen as well.

García declined to share what Chapman was conducting surveillance for but said the department’s covert units operate in areas where police know violent crime occurs.

The shooting came two days after officers in a U.S. Marshals task force fatally shot a homicide suspect as they tried to arrest him. A Dallas officer who was one of the four who opened fire died by apparent suicide the following day.

Dallas police declined to answer questions about that shooting at Friday’s news conference, but García acknowledged that it has been a tough week for the department.

He also noted that had it not been Chapman’s car that was stolen, it would have been someone else’s.

“Make no mistake about it, had it not been his car, there was another resident that was not a police officer of this city that would have been carjacked that night,” García said.