Dallas police officer ‘executed’ in targeted attack, police chief says

(CNN) — One Dallas police officer is dead and two others are injured following a shootout with a suspect who had fatally shot an officer in his marked patrol car, in what law enforcement officials are calling an execution.

The suspect, identified as Corey Cobb-Bey, 30, arrived at the For Oak Cliff community center and parked his car around 10 p.m. Thursday. He approached Dallas Police Officer Darron Burks, who was in his car parked near the front entrance of the building, and began recording their conversation, according to a release from the Dallas Police Department.

Cobb-Bey then pulled out a handgun and “executed” Burks as he sat in his vehicle, Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said during a news conference.

“Cobb-Bey approached officer Burks, talked with him briefly through the driver’s side window as he recorded the encounter with a cell phone,” Garcia said. “The suspect then pulled out a handgun and executed officer Burks as he sat in his vehicle.”

“I do want to make something clear,” Garcia said. “I know that the word ambush has been thrown around in the last 24 hours or so. That is not what happened here. Officer Burks was executed.”

An officer-in-distress call went out shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday, when the wounded officer was found in his car, the department’s communications director, Kristin Lowman, said during an early morning news conference Friday.

A police dispatcher noticed an “unusual transmission” from Burks’ radio and officers were deployed to look for him, the department said. After shooting Burks, the suspect returned to his car and retrieved a shotgun, which he put on the roof of Burks’ squad car, the release said.

The suspect “immediately” fired a handgun at the first responding officer, Jamie Farmer, who returned fire and ran across the parking lot, the release said. The suspect then grabbed the shotgun from the squad car roof and fired again at Farmer, hitting her in the leg as she ran, according to the department.

The second responding officer, Karissa David, arrived a minute after Farmer. The suspect ran toward David, shooting at her multiple times as she exited her vehicle at the entrance of the parking lot, the department said. David was shot in the face during the exchange, moments before a sergeant arrived at the scene.

Dallas Fire Rescue responded within five minutes of receiving the call for the injured officers, who were all taken to hospitals, according to public information officer Jason Evans. Farmer was treated and released from the hospital Friday, while David remains in critical but stable condition, the news release said.

The Dallas officer’s death brings the number of law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty to at least 93 so far this year, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page. Of those, 38 were deaths from gunfire.

The suspect fled the scene in a vehicle and Dallas police officers followed in pursuit, which ended in Lewisville, north of Dallas. According to a preliminary investigation, the suspect got out of the vehicle with a long gun, was shot by Dallas Police officers multiple times, and died at the scene, Lowman said during the news conference.

The investigation at both scenes, in Dallas and Lewisville, remains ongoing by the Dallas Police Special Investigations Unit and has determined the shooting was “premeditated” after detectives found and collected evidence from social media, police said.

The Dallas County District Attorney’s office was notified about the case and responded to the scene as part of its own investigation.

Garcia is expected to provide an update on the investigation and the officers involved “in the coming days,” Lowman said.

“Our department is hurting. We have officers who are injured, who are in the hospital, and we lost one of our own. We ask tonight and this morning for the thoughts and prayers of our city, for not only those who are recovering in the hospital, but for our fallen, for their family and for their loved ones, and for us as a department as well,” Lowman added.

In a post on X Friday morning, Chief Garcia wrote, “No words.”

Flags at all Dallas municipal facilities will be flown at half-staff on Friday, the police department announced.

“The City of Dallas is a family, and as we mourn the loss of one of our own, I ask that you continue to support and lift up the entire Dallas Police Department in prayer over the next several days and weeks. May God bless and keep them and may God Bless the City of Dallas,” Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, interim city manager, said in a statement.

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