DALLAS _ A standoff with a gunman who shot a neighbor and critically wounded a Dallas firefighter-paramedic who came to his rescue ended Monday afternoon when a police robot entered an Old East Dallas home to find the shooter and a second victim dead.
A source identified the shooter as Derick Lamont Brown, who lived on Reynolds Avenue, where the shooting occurred.
Brown, 36, had a lengthy criminal history and was chairman of the New Black Panther Party in Dallas in the early 2000s.
Officers called to a Reynolds Avenue home about 11:30 a.m. found a Dallas Fire-Rescue ambulance already at the scene and a firefighter-paramedic and another person bleeding in the street, interim Dallas Police Chief David Pughes said.
As they approached, officers were fired on and had to take cover. A police sergeant arriving at the scene ran to the severely injured paramedic, pulled him out, put him into his squad car and drove him to Baylor University Medical Center, he said.
"We believe ... as a result of those actions that paramedic's life was saved," Pughes said.
The paramedic underwent surgery and was in critical but stable condition Monday afternoon. The resident who was also shot is in ICU, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said.
Another police officer responding to the call was also injured but was not taken to the hospital. The extent of the officer's injuries has not been released, Pughes said.
Police received information that the suspected shooter was holed up in a house on Reynolds. SWAT was called in, and a police robot was sent into the house where they believed the man was hiding, he said.
Once in, the robot located the body of the man believed to be the shooter and another person. The suspected shooter was dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Rawlings said.
The paramedic, an 11-year veteran of the department whose name has not been released, was out of surgery Monday afternoon and transferred to the ICU.
He suffered significant blood loss, and went into cardiac arrest three times during surgery. At least one gunshot pierced an artery, and his leg was broken by a bullet. He may have to undergo additional surgeries, the city of Dallas said in a statement.
Officers on the scene were told that "it was just a simple dispute between two neighbors that escalated into a shooting," Pughes said.
Dallas Fire-Rescue Chief David Coatney said the notes on the call sheet indicated "self-inflicted," which may have caused some confusion over whether paramedics believed they were responding to a suicide, rather than an active-shooter situation.
"In this particular event ... it came in as a shooting incident and buried in the notes it originally said self-inflicted, so that's what they believed they were going into," he said.
Dallas Fire-Rescue paramedics have access to body armor kits carried in rescue units that are deployed to scenes, but the wounded paramedic did not have it on.
Coatney said the department is looking into whether to change the policy of whether paramedics carry the armor in rescue vehicles.
The suspected gunman told The Dallas Morning News in 2004 that he wanted to empower residents to stand up to the police and fight back as a last resort.
"We're willing to defend by any cause and every cause," Brown said in 2004. "If that takes fighting back, Lord have mercy for me on what should happen on the streets, but I'm willing."
But he also said he wanted to steer away from the militant stereotype of the Black Panthers.
Brown had a lengthy criminal history in Dallas County. He pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated and firearms charges.
In October, Brown was pulled over after driving the wrong way down a street near downtown Dallas. He had bloodshot eyes and his breath smelled of alcohol, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
When officers attempted to handcuff him, he resisted. Eventually he was handcuffed but again resisted being put into the squad car, refusing to walk and leaning his 200-pound frame into officers. The officers had to drive the squad car to him, according to the affidavit.
He was charged with driving while intoxicated and resisting arrest. At the time of the arrest, he had a prior DWI conviction from 2010, and two other pending DWI cases from Dallas County in January and July of last year, the affidavit stated.
In December 2015, Brown crashed his car. An officer who responded to the accident smelled PCP and saw Brown standing outside the wrecked car holding a 9mm handgun in one hand and a loaded magazine in the other, the arrest warrant affidavit stated.
He pleaded guilty to unlawfully carrying a handgun and was sent to jail in November. It's unclear when he got out.
Anna Hill, president of the neighborhood association, tweeted a description of the shooter and told everyone to "be safe and look out." The shooter was described as bald black male wearing a green shirt and jeans. He walks with a limp.
A helicopter hovered above as police searched for the shooter. Early in the search, officers armed with rifles crouched behind police cars. The Dallas police gang unit, state police and members of the Dallas field division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were also in the area.
The shooting occurred not far from the Dolphin Road Fire Training Academy, the city of Dallas said in a statement. Those there were sheltering in place.
Officers were reportedly going door to door searching for the shooter, who was said to be armed with a rifle, according to media reports.
By 4:30 p.m., police said the threat to the neighborhood was over.
A woman who lives on the street where the gunman's body was found said she started getting calls around noon from her neighbors who said there had been a shooting. They told her to stay away, but she drove to the neighborhood anyway and waited on word from police.
"We just keep an eye on each other," she said.
April Garcia, another resident, returned after a day out with her mom and children to find cops blocking the street where she lives. "Another day in the hood," she said, before driving away with her family. "Another day in the hood."
Police cars and fire trucks parked around the perimeter of the emergency department at Baylor where the injured paramedic had been taken.
In an unrelated incident, one person was killed and at three others were injured at the University of Texas at Austin.
