Posted on 06/19/2004 6:10:11 AM PDT by Max Combined
GRAND PRAIRIE -- A gunman in a van in a Wal-Mart parking lot killed one police officer and critically wounded another Friday, prompting a daylong standoff that trapped customers in the store before the attacker was found dead.
Sgt. Gregory Hunter, 54, was fatally shot as he and another officer, Bruce Seix, checked on a blue camper-style van that had been parked all night with its engine running, said police spokesman John Brimmer.
Hunter went to the front of the van and Seix to the side, Brimmer said. The suspect, whose name was not released, shot Hunter at least twice through the front windshield; Seix managed to fire a few rounds before he was wounded.
Seix, 44, was hospitalized in critical condition after his lung and liver were pierced by bullet fragments, but was "conscious and talking," Brimmer said.
SWAT negotiators, speaking on a loudspeaker in English and Spanish, tried to get the man to communicate with them, but he never responded. Brimmer said the man apparently used his cell phone at some point to call his girlfriend.
Tear gas and several flash-bang grenades were fired into the van about 2:30 p.m. When officers entered the van, they found the man dead inside. Brimmer said it appears he was wounded by one of the shots fired by Seix.
John Jacobs, the manager of a Payless ShoeSource near the Wal-Mart, said he was about to leave the store to go to the bank when he heard three pops. He said he thought a car must have backfired until he heard another volley of pops.
"When I heard whistling, I knew rounds were coming in our direction. So when I heard the whistling, I hit the ground and I called the cops," said Jacobs, who was locked alone in the store part of the morning as the standoff continued outside.
"I would say everything probably happened in maybe seven to 10 seconds. It was just very quick," he said.
Sherice Jenkins told The Dallas Morning News that she and her daughter were chatting with a friend in front of Wal-Mart when they heard five booms in rapid succession about 9:30 a.m. They immediately knew they were gunshots.
"When we heard the shots, my daughter ran up and grabbed my hand and tried to pull me back into the store," she said. "I was like, wow, someone's hurt or dead."
A Wal-Mart employee said the original call asking police to investigate came after an employee heard strange noise from inside the van, which Brimmer said was reported stolen in New Mexico in February.
A motor home parked near the van throughout the standoff belonged to Carl and Tricia Pool of Austin, who were visiting North Texas for a golf tournament. They said the van wasn't there when they pulled into the lot about 9 p.m. Thursday, but a short time later it parked about 50 feet from their vehicle.
Carl Pool said his wife heard someone tampering with their RV door early Friday morning while he was golfing. He said she shouted and the noise stopped.
The Pools were not at the scene when the standoff began.
For about three hours, 150 Wal-Mart shoppers and 60 employees were locked inside the store as a safety precaution. The customers said they sat in patio chairs and watched developments on televisions in the electronics department before they were escorted out a back door.
Police also closed the access road along Great Southwest Parkway and about four miles of Interstate 20 near the Wal-Mart, creating gridlock traffic for most of the day. The van sat in a parking space next to the road in the Grand Prairie suburb between Dallas and Fort Worth.
Hunter became the Grand Prairie Police Department's first black officer when he was hired in 1973. He left briefly for a security guard job, then returned to the force in 1983. He became a sergeant five years ago, Brimmer said.
Hunter is survived by his wife, Denise, and their three daughters, ages 14, 19 and 21, Grand Prairie city spokeswoman Amy Sprinkles said.
Hunter received several commendations during his career, including the Baton for Respect, which recognized that he was "one of the most respected officers in the entire department," Sprinkles said.
I've been looking over the articles you've posted this morning. What's your criteria for selecting what you post? Just interested.
What was going on with the guy in the van that he thought a good way to start his day was by shooting a cop? Maybe he was totally stoned on drugs? That's not usually this first thing I'd say, but in this case I'll make an exception.
May God be with those who mourn....
Probably perptrated by some jerk who could not kill himself and wanted "suicide by cop"... so he committed the murder.
Why? He wasn't reported as being a minor, so WHY won't they release his name?
Could it have perhaps an ethnic sound to it?
Could it be that since our borders are hanging open that someone (gasp) just walked across without proper 'documentation'?
He also called his girlfriend early on Friday and told her he had a bomb.
Probably.
I post articles that I find interesting and that I think others may find interesting.
What is your criterion for posting articles?
I don't know, but he was making some strange sounds, which attracted attention and concern, so he was probably high or nuts or both.
I just wondered about your selections because 3 of the last 4 articles you'd posted were about violent events in Texas which are not types of violence peculiar to Texas. What really caught my eye was that you called Houston (not where I live) the "wild frontier" or the "wild West" (I can't find the article or the post now-- sorry. You'd know where you posted it.) I just politely wonder if you were making a point.
I live in the Houston area and I like the city, but it is a very violent place. People should be aware of this fact and conduct themselves accordingly.
I read the Houston news, so that is where I find most of the articles that I post. Also, most of the national news stories are posted by someone else before I get to them, but the Houston stories are sometimes not posted.
I am not really worried about myself or my family, since we do not spend time in the areas where most of the violence occurs and we do not take part in the activities that lead to most of the violence.
"Carl Pool said his wife heard someone tampering with their RV door early Friday morning while he was golfing. He said she shouted and the noise stopped."
Wow she was very lucky she didn't become that nutcases hostage! How scary
"so he was probably high or nuts or both."
IMO a person is already nuts if they "choose" to do drugs, become an alcoholic or partake in deviant behavior. The underlying psychosis is already there, all the other stuff comes afterwards as a result.
If you fear violence, then take the course and get a Concealed Handgun License...or move if you think you'll be safer elsewhere.
If there is some other agenda, your point is lost.
"So you're warning people about Houston? Is it more violent than New York or Atlanta or D. C. or Los Angeles or Philadelphia or San Diego or Kansas City or any other big city?"
I don't live in one of those cities so I don't know much about them. People living in those cities can post examples of crime that occurs in those areas, if they want to.
In my opinion, Houston is the most violent city that I have ever lived in or near. There is a tremendous amount of wonton, senseless violence on a nearly daily basis. Much of the violence seems bizarre to me. There seems to be so much violence here that many people are immune to it. I lived in Dallas and while there is plenty of violence in Dallas, without looking at the statistics scientifically, it seems to me that Houston is much more violent than Dallas.
I an not putting Houston down, just stating things as I see them. You seem awful defensive about Houston. Do you think that Houston is one of the sweatiest cities in America or do you think it is no sweatier than most other cities?
Houston is what it is. It has lots of good and lots of bad things about it. It just so happens that after living here for a while, I like the city of Houston overall, even though it is hot and violent. Oh yes, people drive like jerks here as well as driving too fast, which contributes to the daily death toll on the streets, as well as the drunk driving.
"If you fear violence, then take the course and get a Concealed Handgun License...or move if you think you'll be safer elsewhere.
If there is some other agenda, your point is lost."
I don't fear violence and I don't have an agenda.
I was just posting some news articles that I found interesting and I thought other might want to read. Since I was reading the Houston paper, most of the articles I posted were about Houston and Texas. Simple enough.
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