What to Know
- Dallas police officer Darron Burks was killed in a shooting Thursday in Oak Cliff. Dallas Chief of Police Eddie Garcia said the attack was premeditated and Burks was executed.
- Two other officers were injured in a gun battle with the suspected shooter when they arrived at the scene. One of the wounded officers has been released from the hospital and the other is critical but stable.
- Police killed the suspected shooter after a chase that ended in Lewisville. He was identified Friday as Corey Cobb-Bey.
- The initial shooting took place at about 10:10 p.m. Thursday on the 900 block of East Ledbetter Drive. The pursuit ended in Lewisville, on the 1000 block of Stemmons Freeway, at about 10:45 p.m.
- Funeral services for Burks will be held on Saturday at Watermark Church in Dallas.
Dallas police released dashboard camera video Monday of the fatal shooting of a man police say targeted and killed one officer and injured two others late Thursday.
Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said Friday that 30-year-old Corey Cobb-Bey intentionally set out to shoot police officers when he killed officer Darron Burks as he sat in his patrol car outside an Oak Cliff community center between calls. Cobb-Bey, police said, also wounded two others who arrived at the scene to check on Burks.
The late-night attack set off a highway chase that ended in Lewisville, with officers fatally shooting the armed man.
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The video released Monday showed Cobb-Bey stopping on Interstate 35E and getting out of his white Buick. The video from the cruiser includes audio—someone on the police radio said, "Felony stop, use caution."
“Use caution. He’s looking back. He’s still in the car, coming out with a weapon,” the voice can be heard as the suspect is seen walking back toward officers. "Hands are up."
Dallas police edited the footage, blurring the final images of Cobb-Bey's movements and pausing the video to zoom in on the weapon. The dash cam angle showed an officer taking a defensive position behind his cruiser's door.
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"Drop the gun," officers can be heard yelling at Cobb-Bey multiple times as he walked away and then back toward officers.
Cobb-Bey does not clearly appear to aim directly at police, but he continues walking toward officers.
Dallas police blurred the video at the moment officers opened fire, shooting several rounds at Cobb-Bey.
NBC 5 paused the video released by police so as not to show the man's body falling to the ground.
"Roll EMS, roll EMS, we've got shots fired," someone calls out over the police radio as the footage ends.
Six officers fired at Cobb-Bey, who died at the scene after being hit multiple times, police said. No officers were injured at the end of the chase.
Police recovered two shotguns at the Lewisville site and two handguns at the Oak Cliff shooting scene. Garcia said Cobb-Bey had legally obtained the guns. One of the shotguns is shown in the video released by Dallas police on Monday.
Deputy Police Chief William Griffith said in the video released Monday by Dallas police that the investigation showed the attack was "premeditated" after investigators collected evidence on social media.
Griffith said that Cobb-Bey recorded his encounter with Burks on a cell phone. The police department will not be releasing that video.
Sr. Cpl. Jamie Farmer, who was the first officer to arrive on the scene in Oak Cliff, was shot in the leg and was treated and released from the hospital Monday.
Sr. Cpl. Karissa David was the second officer to respond to the scene of Burks' shooting, she was shot in the face. Garcia said Friday she was in critical but stable condition.
On Monday, Dallas police spokeswoman Kristin Lowman said David was upgraded to stable condition.
NBC 5 asked criminologist Dr. Alex del Carmen, Ph.D., to review the video released by Dallas police and offer any insight into officers' actions.
Del Carmen is a professor and associate dean of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts and the School of Criminology, Criminal Justice, and Strategic Studies at Tarleton State University.
He emphasizes first that the chase involved a felony stop, meaning that whether officers knew the crime Cobb-Bey was wanted for or not, they were trained to exercise extreme caution during felony stops.
“In this case, after 27 years of being a criminologist and training thousands of police officers, and you know me well enough to know I call the balls and strikes where I see them. I really believe that in this case, police officers were justified to use lethal force,” he concluded.
Del Carmen also supported Garcia’s decision not to release a video of the initial rampage.
“To me, I think that, you know, the part that should have been released for investigative purposes, for the public to see in terms of transparency and holding their officers accountable, has already been seen (officers’ opening fire on the suspect). I think anything that goes beyond that, in my point, is to create traumas that may, may, in fact, be unnecessary,” said del Carmen. “[DPD is] protecting this to only the absolutely necessary people that need to have what they need to watch this in order to be able to close this case or have the full investigation.”
When six officers opened fire almost simultaneously, del Carmen said this proves that each officer saw the threat and reacted according to their training.
He does not see the final seconds of the rampage as officers seeking vengeance, but rather, officers repeatedly demand the suspect drop his rife equipped with a high-capacity magazine.
“They didn't, they didn't ram into the vehicle. They did not, you know, massacre the person inside the car without giving the person a chance to get out of the car,” said del Carmen. “Then, he gets out, he's got a rifle, and in spite of that, they're giving him verbal commands. And then and then at some point, the trigger of him lowering that weapon and pointing it at them, what appears to be that that's whether the officers respond with sadly the last resort that they had in place, which is, you know, to use the lethal force."
Burks's public visitation is planned for Friday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., followed by the funeral service at 11 a.m. Saturday at Watermark Church on LBJ Freeway in Dallas.
Flags around the city have been flying at half-staff in honor of Burks.
