The 27-year-old son of the new Dallas Police Chief was gunned down by officers after he shot and killed one of their own.
The tragic scene unfolded around 6pm yesterday evening at the River Bend apartments in Southern Dallas county after residents called the police to report gun fire.
According to the Dallas News, David O’Neal Brown Jr., the son of Dallas Police Chief David Brown, was in an agitated state when he wandered from his apartment into the parking lot of the complex carrying a handgun and wearing just boxers and sunglasses.
Residents say Brown Jr. approached the driver’s side door of a car that had just pulled into the parking lot. The driver of the vehicle was 23-year-old Jeremy Jontae McMillian, who was on his way to a Father’s Day dinner with his wife and their two small children.
Apparently, without provocation, Brown fired twice into the car hitting McMillian in the head, and barely missing the other occupants of the car. McMillian was a family man with two jobs and no criminal history. It isn’t clear whether he knew Brown.
After shooting McMillian, Brown stalked back and forth between his apartment and a Dodge Stratus parked in the lot. He eventually removed a shotgun from the trunk of the Stratus and climbed behind the wheel as police sirens wailed in the distance.
The first officer on the scene was Craig Shaw, 37, a father of two and a 5 year veteran of the Dallas police force. Shaw attempted to stop the Stratus when residents screamed that the shooter was getting away.
Brown got out of the vehicle and fired several rounds at Shaw’s patrol unit. Shaw returned fire as Brown got back into the car and kept shooting through the window. Shaw was hit in the head and later died en route to the hospital.
Other officers responding to the scene shot Brown multiple times killing him.
“I just heard lots of quick shots – you know, like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, you know – that’s all I heard,” said River Bend apartments resident Pat Miles. “I jumped down on the floor.”
According to The Dallas Morning News, Brown Jr. was arrested in 2003 on suspicion of selling marijuana and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. In an interview with the paper earlier this year, Chief Brown said his son was making progress and that he was proud of him.
“I’m much more impressed when you make mistakes, how you respond to it,” Brown said. “It speaks to the kind of man he is. He continued his education. He’s gainfully employed in spite of some of the mistakes that he’s made.” [link]
