CRANDALL – A Kaufman County sheriff’s deputy and a Crandall police officer were shot early Saturday morning while responding to a panic alarm outside a supermarket, officials said.
Kaufman County Sheriff Bryan Beavers said the deputy and officer responded to a silent alarm at a Texas Pride supermarket in the 5500 block of FM 741 shortly after 3 a.m.
When they arrived, the suspect fired at the deputy and the police officer, who returned fire, killing the man, Beavers said. The deputy and the police officer were taken to Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas and are expected to recover.
The sight of police vehicles, crime scene tape, more than four dozen evidence markers and two guns on the ground shocked residents near the Exxon gas station where the shooting took place.
“I live two blocks behind the store, so it’s kind of creepy,” Carnell McCurdy said.
McCurdy, a father of three young children, said he couldn’t believe a shooting had occurred so close to his home.
“It’s heartbreaking to know it’s right in my backyard, to think I’m moving from one neighborhood to a better neighborhood, and it’s just the same everywhere you go,” McCurdy said.
Sylvester Henderson, who lives in a housing development across the street from the gas station, said he moved away from Pleasant Grove because of crime and now faces the same problems.
“This is supposed to be a peaceful neighborhood, and I need to wake up in a peaceful neighborhood and know that my car was broken into, and it shouldn’t be like that,” Henderson said. “We’re from the neighborhood. I don’t want to come here and still have to deal with this.”
Henderson said items were stolen from his car several months ago and that after the shooting he was considering whether to live in the area again.
“Honestly, at this point, you just want to move,” Henderson said. “From the looks of things, we were better off in Pleasant Grove than out here. It’s not as peaceful as you’d think.”
Beavers said the male deputy has been on the force for 10 years and the female officer for three years.
The identities of the suspect and officers have not been released. The Texas Rangers have taken over the investigation.
