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A SWAT commander chief has died and four other officers injured after an hour-long police standoff with a gunman Thursday in a small town in West Texas, officials said. Authorities say the suspect was captured just before midnight in Levelland, about 30 miles west of Lubbock.
The standoff between the suspect and law enforcement began at the house around 1 p.m. after someone reported that a man may be armed along the residential street. The confrontation quickly escalated, gunshots erupted as the suspect barricaded himself inside a house, and a stalemate ensued.
Three of the injured officers were taken to a hospital in Lubbock. Sgt. Josh Bartlett of the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office was taken to Covenant Health Levelland Hospital and died of his injuries, according to a statement from the Sheriff’s Office. Bartlett was the sheriff’s tactical unit commander.
Levelland Police Sgt. Shawn Wilson was in critical but stable condition at Lubbock University Medical Center after surgery, Garcia said. The other three officers were treated for minor injuries and were released from the hospital, he said.
Omar Soto-Chavira, 22, was injured when he was taken into custody around 11:30 p.m. in a house in Levelland, police chief Albert Garcia told reporters. The suspect was taken to a Lubbock hospital for treatment, Garcia said.
Authorities used robots to enter the house and then deployed gas that knocked Soto-Chivara out of the residence, Lubbock County Sheriff Kelly Rowe said at the briefing.
Hockley County Sheriff Ray Scifres had said the suspect had a history of contact with police. He also said Bartlett, SWAT command chief of the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office, was a nine-year veteran of the department who had served overseas in the U.S. military.
“Josh was a real servant,” Rowe said. “He personified the true law enforcement professional, especially here in Texas.”
Texas Senator Ted Cruz and U.S. Representative Jodey Arrington, who represents Texas’ 19th Congressional District, reacted to Bartlett’s death on Twitter.
It is not immediately clear what prompted the man to open fire or barricade himself in the house. However, the standoff ended a string of events that began at 11:17 a.m. on Thursday as a state soldier conducted a traffic check, Garcia said.
“During that contact with traffic, there was a separate person who drove recklessly and, as he reported to us, seemed to be trying to drag him into some kind of confrontation,” Garcia said.
At 1:12 p.m. Thursday, Levelland Police received a report that the complainant’s neighbor was “acting strangely and walking around with what appeared to be a big gun,” Garcia said. Arriving officers determined that the neighbor’s van matched the soldier’s description of the vehicle with the seemingly defiant driver behind the wheel.
Garcia said investigators believed the man was alone in the house. Concerned about reports that the man was armed, a police negotiator attempted to open talks with the suspect, who was hostile and did not want a discussion, Garcia said. Moments later, the suspect opened the front door of the house and opened fire on Levelland’s agents. “We fought back, but it doesn’t look like we hit the suspect at that point,” the chief said.
The backup was called from the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office Tactical Team and the Hockley County Sheriff’s Office. “Shortly after, we had more gunfire and officers were injured,” Garcia said.
The hospital where Lubbock County Member of Parliament died, Covenant Health Levelland, is located less than a mile from the standoff scene and has gone into lockdown “to keep our patients safe, caregivers and visitors “and deployed additional security guards to the hospital.
Media at the scene reported that gunfire was in progress throughout the standoff, and nearby residents were told to leave their homes. Some who refused to leave were told to stay in the back of their homes and stay low, Garcia said.
Police, MPs and other emergency teams from across the region responded to the incident, as did the Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Rangers, FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other federal agencies, Garcia said. The Rangers would investigate once the stalemate is over.
Levelland is the seat of Hockley County and a local center for oil, cotton and ranching that is home to approximately 13,500 residents.
Lubbock County Judge Curtis Parrish said the county flags would be raised at half mast to honor Bartlett, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported.
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