There are new details on the police shooting in an Arlington neighborhood that left one man dead.
It happened Wednesday afternoon just south of Pioneer Parkway near Collins.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the man as Jesse Joseph Fischer, 40.
Initial details are that a police officer shot and killed the driver of a Jeep who came in that officer’s direction following a slow-speed chase.
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The pursuit ended in a cul-de-sac along Carla Court, where one family saw police trying to save a wounded man.
“It was very crazy, especially in this neighborhood,” said James Doherty. “There was at least 20 squad cars.”
Doherty and his mother-in-law ran out of their home into the awful scene.
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Police surrounded a white Jeep with six bullet holes through the windshield.
“When we came outside, they were pulling the guy out of the vehicle and laying him on the ground and giving him CPR and it looked like they were trying to revive him,” said Doherty. “It was mind-blowing. I’ve never seen nothing like it in my life.”
Moments earlier, someone called police to report a man slumped over in his car in the middle of Pioneer Parkway, according to APD.
Officers responded and reportedly instructed Fischer to stay where he was.
Fischer is accused of taking off in his car and fleeing police twice before ending up down the cul-de-sac.
Police claim Fischer then “made a U-turn and began driving in the direction of one of the officers, who had stopped, exited his vehicle, and was standing near his open door.’
The unnamed officer, a seven-year veteran on the force, fired multiple shots at the SUV, striking the driver.
Police initiated live-saving measures.
Fischer was rushed to the hospital where he later died.
APD’s spokesperson Tim Ciesco tells NBC 5 the department will release video once the incident is reviewed and is shown to Fischer’s family.
Online court records show Fischer had an active warrant for his arrest on a drug charge. Previous run-ins with police included theft and burglary.
The department’s ‘use of force’ policy revised in 2020, limits officers from firing their gun at a moving vehicle, except when the suspect is using deadly force.
The policy also states officers should not put themselves in the path of a vehicle, unless the need to stop it outweighs potential risks involved.
Officers should also issue a verbal warning before discharging their weapon.
This is the city’s second officer-involved shooting of 2021.
During a traffic stop in March, a police officer working with a U.S. Marshals’ task force shot and killed a man wanted on several felony warrants. The officer involved in that shoot was cleared of criminal and departmental policy violations.
The two-pronged investigation into Wednesday’s police shooting will also determine if criminal or departmental policies were violated.
Doherty hopes there is a thorough and transparent investigation.
“If they could’ve figured out a different way to handle it, I think it probably could’ve come out to a better situation. But I mean, if they were threatened for their lives, they have families too so they got to do what they got to do,” he said.
The two officers involved in the incident are on standard paid leave.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office has determined Fischer’s death is a homicide caused by gunshot wounds.
