Texas officer kills man suspected of hitting worker with car

MESQUITE, Texas (AP) — An off-duty police officer shot and killed a 30-year-old man who refused to stop after striking a highway construction worker with his vehicle in Dallas, authorities said.

The Mesquite Police Department said off-duty officers from the East Texas cities of Jefferson and Seven Points were providing construction security in Dallas early Saturday when the construction worker was hit.

The suspect refused to stop at the scene, and officers requested assistance as they pursued him on Interstate 635, police said Saturday in a statement.

The suspect finally stopped “after contact was made between the suspect’s vehicle and the officer’s vehicle” in the Dallas suburb of Mesquite, according to the statement. One of the officers then shot the suspect, police said.

The statement did not explain what prompted the shooting nor if the off-duty officers identified themselves to the suspect as police. Mesquite Lt. Stephen Biggs said Sunday that he couldn’t say much more than what was included in the statement because the investigation is ongoing.

But Biggs added Sunday that one of his department’s investigators told him the off-duty officers were in a vehicle owned by a private security company.

When Mesquite officers arrived, the suspect had been shot and the off-duty officers who pursued him were providing first aid. Mesquite police then took over first aid until paramedics arrived.

Police said the suspect died at a hospital.

Biggs said the construction worker had been in stable condition but forwarded questions about updates to Dallas police, who responded to the shooting. Dallas police Officer Tamika Dameron said Sunday that the department did not know the current condition of the construction worker.