A 29-year-old man accused of killing a Dallas police officer also shot at police during the car chase that came hours after the shooting at a Lake Highlands Home Depot, arrest records show. Armando Luis Juarez was arrested after a five-hour manhunt Tuesday night. Before his arrest, he fired at two officers in a police cruiser on the highway, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. Additional felony charges were filed against him Friday, including two charges of aggravated assault of a public servant and two charges of forgery of a financial instrument. His bail was doubled to just over $4 million, jail records show. Juarez is accused of capital murder in the fatal shooting of Officer Rogelio Santander, who died early Wednesday after he was shot Tuesday afternoon at the Home Depot where he and his partner were called to arrest the theft suspect. Juarez also faces a charge of aggravated assault against a public servant and another against the civilian for critically injuring Officer Crystal Almeida, 26, and Home Depot loss prevention associate Scott Painter.
The shooting occurred around 4:15 p.m. last Tuesday after Santander, 27, and Almeida responded to a shoplifting call at Home Depot. Painter was working as a loss prevention associate and saw Juarez behaving suspiciously and possibly trying to steal something. A Dallas officer working an off-duty job at the store detained Juarez and found that he had an outstanding warrant. The officer was double-checking that the warrant was for Juarez when the man pulled a gun and shot Santander, Almeida and Painter, police records show. After several hours, two officers spotted Juarez’s vehicle in southeast Dallas. They were following Juarez when he fired a handgun several times at them, a warrant says. One of the officers said he heard the shots and “then observed a cloud of smoke from the driver’s side of the suspect vehicle.” Because Juarez had already shot two officers, the warrant says, the two officers following him were “in fear for their lives and slowed to create distance between themselves and the suspect.” The car chase ended after Juarez drove into a dead end in a neighborhood near Love Field. Juarez reversed and hit a parked car. He then threw his handgun out of his vehicle. Officers found a box of ammunition and several shell casings inside his vehicle. Juarez’s criminal record doesn’t show any violent offenses. He had been arrested twice in the past five months: on a felony theft charge in December and on an unlawful use of a motor vehicle charge in January. He was released on bond in January, but a judge increased his bail in February, records show. Juarez has pleaded guilty in the past to attempted possession of a controlled substance. [Source: Dallas News] UPDATE: A Go-Fund-Me page has been set up for Scott Painter and his family.
