14 DAY TRIAL // A police officer has been fatally shot and a second officer was injured in the small town of Killeen in Texas on Saturday, July 13.
The officer was killed with an AK47 after responding to a call about a man threatening residents with a firearm.
At 11:40 p.m., two officers arrived at Grandon Manor Apartments where a suspect was hiding inside the building.
A tactical unit was dispatched and one of the cops attempted to negotiate with the suspect. He agreed to come out with his hands held high but did not make it all the way outside.
As he was approaching the door, he pulled out the semi-automatic weapon and opened fire.
"He killed the cop and I was scared because I have a two year old and it's literally like a hundred yards from my house," neighbor Heather Lanham tells KXXV.
"All of a sudden I hear a boom. [...] It sounded like a gunshot. I heard more, several, like someone was spraying [gunfire] and I come outside and the cops were yelling at the gentleman that lived over there put it down, put it down, come out and then it went from there," Lanham explains.
Killeen police spokeswoman Carroll Smith also describes "numerous, numerous shots fired" during the operation.
"As the officers were attempting to detain him he fell back and came back up with an AK47 and started shooting at the officers," Smith says.
Residents in the apartment complex are planning to set up a neighborhood watch group after the gruesome incident.
"I'm a little scared. Yeah that something like this could happen in such a quiet place," Lanham says.
The suspect has been killed in the shootout, but his identity is yet to be revealed. The name of the slain policeman has also been kept quiet.
"It's awful. This officer was a great officer. [...] He was a friend , he was a good son, a good husband and a good father, a good brother, a great guy and he's going to be missed deeply," Smith stated.