Friday, Dallas’ police chief said that the man who killed an officer sitting in his patrol car and hurt two others in the middle of the night planned to shoot police. The attack led to a highway chase, and police shot and killed the suspect.
Five police officers were killed in 2016 when a shooter ambushed them and shot them. The shooting on Thursday night caused more pain and anger in the city.
At a news conference, Chief Eddie Garcia said that the suspect, 30-year-old Corey Cobb-Bey, approached Officer Darron Burks while he was waiting between calls at a community center. He spoke to Burks for a short time and recorded the conversation before pulling out a gun and “executing” him.
Garcia said, “Our officers were targeted for nothing more than the uniform they wear and the brave and honorable work they do.”
Cobb-Bey pulled into the parking lot at 10:02 p.m., which was about two minutes before Burks. Police say that after shooting Burks, Cobb-Bey got a shotgun from his car and put it on top of the squad car.
At 10:11 p.m., Sr. Cpl. Jamie Farmer went to check on Burks after a dispatcher saw a strange message from him. Cobb-Bey shot Farmer with his handgun. Farmer fired back, and Cobb-Bey got the shotgun. Police say Farmer was hit in the leg once.
Police say Cobb-Bey shot Sr. Cpl. Karissa David several times when she arrived a minute later. The police said she shot back and was hit in the face.
Farmer was freed from the hospital on Friday, but David stayed there and is still in critical but stable condition.
Cops chased Cobb-Bey to Lewisville, Texas, which is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Dallas after he ran away from the scene of the crime. Cobb-Bey got out of his car with a shotgun pointed at police when it stopped on Interstate 35, according to the police. Police say that six cops shot and killed Cobb-Bey at the scene. He was hit several times and died at the scene.
During that gunfight, no police officers were hurt.
Garcia said that their investigation has shown that the killings were planned ahead of time. He said that online sources told them that three days ago, Cobb-Bey walked up to an undercover police car from an unknown agency and started recording as he asked the officers why they were parked there.
Garcia said that Cobb-Bey had written online that he was having problems in both his personal and work life and that “an event” was going to happen.
When police went to the scene in Lewisville, they found two shotguns. At the first scene, they found Cobb-Bey’s.22 pistol and his 9mm handgun.
Burks just recently became a police officer. Before that, he taught math at a high school for 17 years.
From June 2006 to February 2023, Burks taught at Texans Can Academy, a charter high school in Dallas’s Pleasant Grove neighborhood. The school’s director, Tina Shaw, said in a statement that he was “not only an excellent educator but also a mentor to countless students.”
Shaw said, “His dedication to helping others as a teacher and as a police officer showed how much he wanted to make a difference in the lives of those around him.”
The lawyer for Harris County, which covers the Houston area, is Christian Menefee. Menefee told Burks that he and he were both in the same college group.
They said in a statement, “He was a man of great character with a servant’s heart that knew no bounds.”