At the end of a long day, Dallas SWAT used explosives to enter the property of an armed suspect: James Coreas
A neighbor who offered safety to the domestic violence victim related to Tuesday’s four-hour long SWAT and police standoff speaks about her experience. (Photos and additional reporting by James Coreas. Sniper photo, below, is by Savannah Askin.)
The Moss Farm resident asks not to be named, due to the violent nature of what she witnessed Tuesday. She is a well-known and involved member of the Lake Highlands community. I’ve paraphrased for brevity:
I was in my house and my friend was in the yard when she heard screaming. A woman was yelling for help, that ‘he was trying to kill her.’
We immediately got on the phone with 9-1-1 and the neighborhood patrol officer, respectively.
Still on the phone, I stepped out and saw her. She was screaming at the top of her lungs and running. Then she fell face down in the street and a gun dropped from her hand. At her house, in the garage, I saw her husband. He saw us see him and the garage door dropped, not before their little dog ran. It bolted out the garage and down the street.
Dallas SWAT, police and fire-rescue lined Moss Haven Lane Tuesday afternoon: James Coreas
We hollered at her to come in. She grabbed the gun, came in through our garage and we had her drop the gun on our garage floor. The police arrived — first the NPO then the 9-1-1 responders. They talked to her. She described a struggle with the gun and hitting him with it.
We stayed there a while, closed the blinds, as police took her statement. When she told them about more weapons, including an automatic weapon, inside the house, more police, SWAT, began arriving. At one point we left to a safe house, but were allowed to return home before the whole thing ended.
In the late afternoon we heard a large blast. It shook the whole house. They had used some sort of explosive to blow the garage open. There were two blasts.
A sniper takes aim at a Lake Highlands home in which a suspect had barricaded himself: Savannah Askin
They arrested him without further incident. Within moments of the arrest, they were gone and the neighborhood is eerily quite tonight (ironically, Tuesday night was supposed to be National Night Out against crime).
The couple had been married for maybe 15 years. They often threw backyard parties and seemed social, happy, based on what I have seen. I had never met him, but I knew her casually. They have two children and a dog, a shi tzu named Tucker who is still missing.
The victim’s Shi Tzu, Tucker, fled the house and ran from neighbors who tried to help him and is still missing: James Coreas
Police made the arrest late Tuesday afternoon and, according to police report, will charge the suspect with aggravated assault/family violence.
Advocate intern photographer James Coreas arrived at the scene as SWAT readied to enter the residence at which the crime occurred. Scroll for a few more of his photos:
SWAT take suspect into custody (note the apparent wound on the suspect’s head, where the victim told police she struck him).
Explosives used to gain access to suspect
Sniper heads toward suspect’s property
SWAT head out
