Associated Press
SHIVE, Texas (AP) - One officer was killed and two others were wounded in a gun battle Thursday at a rural Hamilton County house, authorities said.
A multi-agency auto theft task force went to the house about 4 p.m. to investigate possible stolen cars, said Tela Mange, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety.
A woman at the property was in the process of signing a consent-to-search document when a man opened fire on the group, killing one officer, Mange said.
The gunman ran out of the house, and a DPS trooper and another officer were shot as gunfire erupted again about 5:45 p.m., DPS Sr. Cpl. Charlie Morgan said.
About 75 to 100 officers from several law enforcement agencies were searching nearby woods late Thursday for the gunman, whom Morgan identified as Marshall Tilman Tallent, 34.
“We still want to try to get him peacefully, and we’re not going to use deadly force unless we need to,” Morgan told the Waco Tribune-Herald.
The officers’ names were not immediately released.
Two officers were in stable condition late Thursday at Scott & White Hospital in Temple, said hospital spokeswoman Brenda Wallin. The DPS trooper underwent surgery for a gunshot wound to the arm, and a Lampasas County deputy was treated for a bullet wound in the head, Wallin said.
The shootings occurred between Hamilton and Evant near the community of Shive, about 55 miles west of Waco.
Neighbors told the Waco Tribune-Herald that Tallent was a hard worker who was trying to turn his life around. Arrest records show that Tallent had several misdemeanor convictions for theft by check, the newspaper said.