DALLAS — The mayor of Dallas says a police officer has died a day after a shooting that also wounded another officer and a home improvement store employee.
Mayor Mike Rawlings announced at a city council meeting Wednesday that officer Rogelio Santander succumbed to his wounds at a Dallas hospital. Santander had been with the police force for three years.
Another officer, Crystal Almeida, is in critical condition, as is a loss-prevention officer for Home Depot who also was shot Tuesday.
Authorities have identified the suspected gunman as 29-year-old Armando Juarez, who was apprehended hours later following a police chase.
Juarez is being held at the Dallas County jail on a bond in excess of $1 million. The charges against him include aggravated assault on a public servant.
But relatives of Juarez said they couldn’t believe he would be involved in such a violent episode.
“There’s no way my son could’ve done this,” Ruben Juarez told The Dallas Morning News, adding that he didn’t think his son owned any guns.
Armando Juarez’s grandmother, Janie Longoria, told reporters Tuesday that her grandson is a “sweet, lovable person,” but that his friends are a bad influence.
“And I told him to stay away from those people,” she said.
Police were called to the store to help an off-duty police officer to remove Juarez from the store. Police have not said if he was suspected of shoplifting or why he was being ejected from store. Juarez opened fire as he was being escorted from the store and made his escape. Several law enforcement agencies were involved in the pursuit that led to his eventual arrest.
Rawlings said he remains “upset at the lack of respect for our police in this city and in our country.”
In 2016, four Dallas police officers and a transit officer were shot dead by a sniper in an ambush that came toward the end of a peaceful protest over the police killings of black men in other cities.
Juarez was arrested in January on a charge of unlawful use of a motor vehicle after authorities say he was found in a stolen vehicle. He also pleaded guilty to a drug-possession charge.
