# 3 police officers, 1 state trooper shot in Texas standoff



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

Officers assemble at the site of a standoff in Midlothian, Texas, Sunday. 
Three officers and a state trooper were shot and wounded during a standoff 
at an apartment complex that stemmed from a report of a broken window, 
officials said

(AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

By STEVE QUINN
Associated Press Writer
*MIDLOTHIAN*, Texas- Three police officers and a state trooper were shot and wounded during a standoff at an apartment complex began with a broken window and stretched into the night, officials said.

Hundreds of people gathered around the two-story brick building, which was illuminated after nightfall Sunday by high powered lights, and bursts of gunfire punctuated the air throughout the evening. The standoff had been going on since at least 3:30 p.m. (2030 GMT).

Officers were initially called to the apartment complex because of a report of a broken window in this town about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of Dallas, Midlothian police said.

The officers determined the window had been broken by a gunshot and went to the apartment where they believed the shots had been fired. There, police said the gunman, Richard Miles, 25, opened fire.

Trooper Rick Smith was shot as he responded to the report of three officers being wounded, said Lisa Block, a Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman.

Miles later fired as officers tried to get a phone into the apartment so they could communicate with him. Officers don't know the motive for the shootings, Block said.

B.J. McClelland said she watched the scene unfold from her kitchen window.

"I saw them all fall down the stairs," she said of the officers.

McClelland said she saw Officer Cody McKinney warning ambulance workers as they tried to make their way to him. "Cody was telling them to get away and not come by the window," she said.

Midlothian police Sgt. Brian Woolery was in serious condition at Methodist Dallas Medical Center Hospital, spokeswoman Kathleen Beathard said. Officer Dustin Compton was in good condition and Smith and McKinney were in fair condition.

A woman who has lived across the street from Miles' parents for the past 12 years said he had been having trouble keeping a job.

"This surely is a shock," said Teresa Colvin, whose children grew up playing with Miles. "I knew he's been having some problems, but I didn't think it would go this far."










AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez

Law enforcement officials point their weapons at a second floor apartment during a standoff in Midlothian, Texas, Aug. 20.









AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez

Three police officers and a state trooper were shot and wounded during a standoff at an apartment complex that stemmed from a report of a broken window, officials said.









Midlothian police

Midlothian Police Department Officer Dustin Compton, left, Sgt. Brian Woolery, center, and Officer Cody McKinney, right, were injured by gunfire.

___

Associated Press writer Linda Franklin in Dallas contributed to this report








_Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed._


----------



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*Details Emerge on Four Shot Texas Officers*

*RICHARD ABSHIRE and SCOTT GOLDSTEIN*
_The Dallas Morning News_









MIDLOTHIAN - It was a routine Sunday afternoon call, the kind police officers everywhere answer by the hundreds, until it suddenly wasn't routine any more.
An officer and a sergeant - two-thirds of the Midlothian Police Department's evening shift - checked out a criminal mischief report at the Stonegate Square apartments at 104 S. 14th St., where a woman had found a broken window.
Figuring that the window had been shot out and that the shot probably had come from a second-floor unit of the nearby Eastwood Apartments, the officers went to talk to whoever lived in Apartment 49.
Officer Dustin Compton and Sgt. Brian Woolery were shot before they could knock on the door, officials said Monday as the details of Sunday's events became clearer.
"They never did come face-to-face with the suspect," explained Capt. John Spann of the Midlothian Police Department. "They started receiving fire, possibly through a window."
A kitchen window looks onto the landing at the top of the stairs, allowing someone inside to watch the landing from inches away without being seen.
Sgt. Brian Woolery was shot in the foot. A radio call of "Shots fired. Officer down," was heard by Cody McKinney, the only other Midlothian officer on duty. When he approached the apartment, he too was shot, five times.
In trying to drag Officer McKinney out of the line of fire, Sgt. Woolery was shot a second time, in the shoulder, and immobilized.
Officer Compton, by this time wounded in the leg and torso, dragged Sgt. Woolery to cover and fired through the apartment door.
The next to arrive, Department of Public Safety Trooper Rick Smith, was shot in the face after moving Officer McKinney to safety.
All four officers were shot on the landing or on or near the stairs.
Sgt. Woolery was in serious condition Monday evening at Methodist Dallas Medical Center. Officers Compton and McKinney and Trooper Smith were listed in good condition.
Reached in his room, Officer Compton said he was shot in the left calf and the left side of his chest. His ballistic vest stopped the shot to his chest, but he is badly bruised, he said.
Officer Compton said that by using a walker he was able to visit the other men in their hospital rooms Monday.
"They're all doing good," he said.
Officer Compton declined to discuss the details of the shooting but said there was little indication of what they were walking into.
"It was kind of just checking-welfare type thing," he said. "We didn't have a whole lot of information going up to it."
String of troubles
Inside the apartment was Richard Wayne Miles II, a 25-year-old at the end of a string of troubles.
Fired in May from his job at a Brookshire's supermarket in Midlothian, he was listed as a suspect in a tire slashing at the store parking lot that was reported by a former co-worker.
Tina Solomon, a high school acquaintance, said, "It was just within the last month that he'd started to get really deep depressed."
And Thursday night, according to a store clerk, Mr. Miles tried to rob the P&S food store at U.S. Highway 287 and 14th Street, two blocks from his apartment.
Sandy Sheffield said she saw Mr. Miles' photograph in Monday's newspaper. "I'm pretty sure that was him," she said.
She said he didn't drive up in a car. He was walking.
"The three officers that were shot were the ones that came by when I called," she said.
SWAT teams were called in as soon as dispatchers knew officers had been wounded, Capt. Spann said. A team from the Mansfield Police Department entered the apartment about 11 p.m. and found Mr. Miles dead in an apparent suicide.
Was Sunday's shootout a desperate scheme by Mr. Miles to end his own life?
"It's a possibility. We may never know," Capt. Spann said. "I can't think of anything else."
Police say people who are suicidal but who won't or can't kill themselves sometimes try to provoke officers to use lethal force.
"As far as I know, no note was found in the apartment," Capt. Spann said.
Apartment wrecked
"There's bullet holes everywhere," said Lynn Angle, who lives in the apartment behind Mr. Miles'. "The only thing we got left is what's in the living room."
Escorted through her apartment by an officer Monday afternoon, she got her first look at the damage. She said the clothes in her bedroom closet were destroyed, right down to her wedding dress.
Capt. Spann said all the officers involved in the incident would be debriefed.
"We try to learn from each incident," he said.
"In this line of work you can't just take anything for granted; you need to always be alert and aware."

Copyright 2005 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy​


----------

