Fort Worth Police Chief Reveals What Led to One of His Officers Shooting Domestic Violence Suspect

Fort Worth, Texas. Red and blue police lights lit up the southern area of ​​Fort Worth on Saturday afternoon after gunfire from an officer. They used the crime scene tape and their patrol cars to block traffic in the 4900 block of Rutland Avenue.

Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes eventually spoke about what led to one of his officers shooting a domestic abuse suspect.

Noakes said: “It’s a sad situation every time an officer is forced to use his weapon.”

Shortly before 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, a woman from the 4900 block of Odessky Prospekt called 911 about her brother threatening her with a gun. When the officers arrived, he reportedly rushed out the back door of the house and provoked a chase with the officers that ended one block east of Rutland Avenue. When the officers finally caught up with him, they tried to arrest him with a stun gun.

“Unfortunately, this use of a stun gun was not effective and did not subdue the suspect. Then around 12:26 p.m., the suspect posed a lethal threat to the police,” Chief Noakes said.

The head of the Fort Worth Police Department arrived on the scene. He gave the media as much preliminary information as possible. This is the second shootout scene in a week where Chief gave preliminary details of what happened. It’s part of the chief’s promise to make the Fort Worth Police Department as transparent as possible. One of his missions is to win the trust of the community he and his officers are sworn to protect and serve.

During the briefing on Rutland Avenue, Chief Noakes remained neutral on the details of the shooting, but said he supported and trusted his officers who are on the street every day. In this case, one of his veteran officers is involved in a critical incident involving the police.

After a taser failed to immobilize a suspect on Rutland Avenue, Noakes said that was when a 15-year-old veteran officer fired and wounded the suspect, who they believed was carrying a weapon.

Chief Neil Noakes said, “The gun was found at the scene in close proximity to the suspect.”

In the US, 19% of domestic violence calls to 911 are gun-related, which increases the risk of homicide by 500%, and 911 receives 20,000 domestic violence calls a day.

“Domestic disturbances are dangerous not only for the victims of this senseless crime, but also for the police officers who are responding,” Chief Noakes said.

The man shot dead by police received immediate first aid from officers and is now stable, according to Chief Noakes.

The officer involved is on administrative reassignment during a shooting investigation, which is standard procedure in cases like this. In recent gunfights involving officers, either Noakes or someone in his command staff gave details of the incident, releasing edited video from a body camera and dash cam.

The FWPD is not releasing the name of the man shot to death on Rutland Avenue Saturday afternoon. Chief Noakes plans to release more information as soon as possible, as long as it doesn’t jeopardize the investigation.