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A Fort Worth police officer and an arson investigator from the Fort Worth Fire Department shot and killed two armed men who were involved in an “altercation” early Wednesday morning, according to police.
The officer and arson investigator were part of a team handling fireworks calls, police said, and were responding to a call around 12:30 a.m. where they saw an “active altercation” near Ross Avenue and Northwest 32nd Street. The Fort Worth Police Department did not describe the nature of the altercation.
The officer and arson investigator “engaged two armed male subjects,” the police department said. “Both officers fired their duty handguns and both male subjects were shot.” The department did not provide any additional information about what led to the officer and arson investigator shooting the men.
One of the men was pronounced dead at the scene, while the other was taken to a hospital, where he died, police said.
The Tarrant County medical examiner’s office identified the men as 30-year-old Bronshay Minter and 21-year-old Billy Smith.
Police said a third man and a woman “were also located on the scene with gunshot wounds” and were hospitalized. The department did not indicate whether those two people were injured in the shooting involving the officer and arson investigator.
“This incident is a stark illustration of just how quickly a seemingly routine call can turn deadly for our officers as they work to keep our city safe and enforce the law,” the Fort Worth Police Department said, providing no further information about the shooting.
The names of the officer and investigator involved in the shooting have not been released. The department’s major-case and internal-affairs units are investigating, along with the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office.
Neil Noakes, the department’s police chief, said in a Friday press conference that the department is planning to release body-camera footage of the shooting early next week.
The shooting comes as Fort Worth police are also investigating a shooting at a Fourth of July festival Monday night that left three people dead and eight others wounded.