A Texas police officer was shot multiple times while being ambushed during a traffic stop early Wednesday, police said.
The Burleson cop, whose name was not immediately released, was wounded while making a traffic stop at 4:15 a.m. Wednesday, department officials tweeted.
Burleson Police Chief Billy Cordell told reporters the officer was in stable condition at a hospital and was expected to survive. One round struck his bullet-resistant vest, Cordell said.
Multiple law enforcement agencies, including the US Marshals and the Texas Rangers, were searching Wednesday for the suspected shooter, Jerry Don Elders, 39, who allegedly opened fire as the cop approached his car for an equipment violation, Cordell said.
Elders was later taken into custody in Gainesville, Texas, Burleson police tweeted Wednesday afternoon.
The officer was shot as he approached Elders’ vehicle on the passenger side, observing a white male in the back and a white female in the front passenger seat. The cop then tapped on the window, prompting Elders to open fire with a handgun, Cordell said.
“He had no warning, nowhere really to go,” the chief said. “So we’re very lucky that he’s in stable condition right now.”
Elders was in the driver’s seat at the time, Cordell said.
“He just leaned across the passenger side of the vehicle … and started firing shots right through the window of the car,” the chief said of Elders.
Elders had an outstanding warrant for felony possession of a controlled substance, which Cordell believes led to the shooting.
“There’s no other way to say it, he was absolutely ambushed during this attack,” the chief said of the wounded cop.
Elders had been sought on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer following the early morning shooting. He and the two other suspects then fled in their vehicle before it caught fire about a half-mile away, at which point they abandoned the car, Cordell said.
Investigators believe one of the suspects then carjacked a woman, who arrived at the Joshua Police Department just before 9 a.m. with gunshot wounds. She was later pronounced dead at a hospital, police said.
“The best thing this guy can do is just turn himself in to some law enforcement agency and let us start processing him,” Cordell said of Elders. “And we’re going to find this guy.”
Elders, of Burleson, was believed to be driving the dead woman’s stolen Tacoma, with a Texas license plate of DKB6819, authorities said.