Shot trooper aided by man
A restaurant cook was the first to help a Texas trooper who was shot moments after making a traffic stop in Channing on Sunday.
The trooper was shot in the leg and was treated and released from a hospital in Dalhart Sunday afternoon, said Trooper Gabriel Medrano, a Department of Public Safety spokesman. The trooper returned fire and the Clayton, N.M., man he shot died at the scene.
Medrano said a preliminary investigation indicates the trooper was fired on before he reached the vehicle's driver-side window. Authorities did not release the names Monday of the trooper or the Clayton man who was killed. A passenger in the car also was not identified.
It happened as the Cowgirl Cafe on Rock Island Avenue in Channing was closing for the day. It was just after 2 p.m. when the vehicle, a Lincoln Town Car, was stopped in the cafe's parking lot.
Bill Cullum, a cook from the eatery, didn't see the incident, but said he heard the shots. He went outside and saw one man on the ground and the trooper clutching his leg.
"It didn't look that severe," Cullum said of the trooper's wound. "It looked like (the bullet) went through and through."
The trooper tried to wrap his leg with gauze from a first-aid kit in his squad car, but had trouble.
Cullum, a former state corrections employee, assisted.
Cullum helped apply pressure to the wound until an ambulance and other authorities arrived.
"The sight of blood didn't affect me much," said Cullum, adding that he worked in a hospital while putting himself through college.
"The officer, as calm as he was, (my staying calm) wasn't a problem."
The passenger in the Town Car ran when the shots rang out, but was captured hiding in an abandoned house in Channing, Medrano said.
DPS has seized the vehicle and the Texas Rangers have executed a search warrant to examine it as part of their investigation of the incident, Medrano said.
The passenger, who also is from Clayton, had a felony warrant in New Mexico, but also likely will face charges in Texas of evading police, Medrano said.
Amarillo.com | Local News: Shot trooper aided by man 01/20/09