LANCASTER, Texas – A police officer responding to gunfire and two other men, including the son of Dallas Police Chief David Brown, were shot and killed at an apartment complex in a Dallas suburb, police said Monday.
Lancaster Police Chief Keith Humphrey said it was the first time an officer in his department had been fatally shot in the line of duty. He identified the slain lawman as Officer Craig Shaw, 37, who had been with the department for five years. Shaw was married with a 13-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son.
"What makes this so devastating was that this was Father's Day," Humphrey said. "You have an officer who was selfless, working on Father's Day so that the citizens of this city could be safe. A selfless officer who was always the first to respond."
The Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office identified the two other men who died as Jeremy McMillan, 23, and David Brown Jr., 27, the son of the Dallas police chief who took office in May.
The medical examiner's office didn't provide a cause of death for them, and it wasn't entirely clear what had happened at the apartment complex.
Shaw responded about 6 p.m. Sunday to a report of a domestic disturbance that was upgraded to shots fired, police said.
"At some point the shooter was confronted, there was an exchange of gunfire, at some point Officer Shaw was shot," Humphrey said during a Monday morning news conference. "There was an additional exchange of gunfire, at some point the shooter was killed."
The shootings happened in common areas of the apartment complex, and one victim was shot while in a car, he said.
Humphrey declined to say whether McMillan or Brown was believed to be the gunman. The Dallas County Sheriff's Department is handling the investigation, he said.
The Dallas Morning News reported that the younger Brown was arrested on suspicion of selling marijuana in Waxahachie in 2003, but pleaded no contest and was convicted of a misdemeanor. In an interview earlier this year, the Dallas police chief said he was proud of how his son, also a father, grew after the incident.
"As Chief Brown mourns the loss of his son, he also mourns the loss of the fallen Lancaster police officer who has served his community with honor for many years," Dallas First Assistant Chief Charles Cato said in a statement released Sunday.
Flags were at half staff Monday outside the police department in Lancaster, a city of 35,000 about 15 miles south of Dallas. Mourners left flowers near a patrol car parked outside the building.
