2 Dallas police officers wounded in shooting outside store

DALLAS – Two Dallas police officers were critically wounded in a shooting Tuesday outside a home improvement store, authorities said.

Police Chief U. Renee Hall said a store loss-prevention officer also was shot in the incident about 4:15 p.m. outside a Home Depot in northern Dallas.

In a tweet about the shooting Tuesday evening, the Dallas Police Department said the officers were critically wounded. During a news conference Tuesday night at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, Hall declined to give an update on their conditions, citing consideration for the privacy of the officers’ families.

“We’re asking you to continue praying for our officers,” Hall said.

The two police officers went to the store to assist an off-duty police officer with taking a man into custody and then the shooting happened.

Police arrested Armando Luis Juarez, 29, on charges of aggravated assault on a police officer and felony theft. He was taken into custody shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday after a lengthy car chase involving officers of various law enforcement agencies.

“I continue to be upset at the lack of respect of our police in this city and in our country,” said Mayor Mike Rawlings, who also attended the hospital news conference.

In 2016, four Dallas police officers and a transit officer were shot dead by a sniper in an ambush that came toward the end of a peaceful protest over the police killings of black men that had occurred in other cities.