By Scott Goldstein
Dallas Morning News
DALLAS — Fifteen police officers shot at a robbery suspect who was killed Sunday night in Pleasant Grove after he refused to drop a gun and told his mother by phone he wanted to die, police said.
Dontell Mitch Terrell, 19, of Dallas died at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas shortly after he was shot. It is unclear how many times he was hit, but police said 13 Dallas officers and two Mesquite officers fired at him in the 10000 block of Mesita Drive near North Masters Drive and Lake June Road.
A 16-year-old accomplice of Terrell’s also was shot in a separate encounter with a Mesquite police officer. His injuries were not life-threatening, police said. A third man was arrested on suspicion of robbery.
The events that led to the shootings began about 9:15 p.m., when police say three people robbed a Papa John’s Pizza in the 1400 block of South Belt Line Road near East Cartwright Road. Investigators believe shots were fired during the robbery, though no one was injured.
Mesquite police began chasing the suspects’ vehicle, a white Chevrolet Impala, which reached speeds up to 120 mph as it entered Dallas.
Terrell got out of the car while it was still moving and ran toward Mesita Drive, which is not far from where he lived, police said.
Mesquite Officer M.D. Franklin was chasing Terrell when he fell and was hit by a fellow Mesquite officer’s vehicle, police said. He suffered a broken leg and is expected to recover.
Terrell ran to the front porch of a home on Mesita Drive, where he was surrounded by about 30 police officers. The occupants of the home got out with help from police.
Terrell was talking to his mother on a phone in one hand and held a gun to his head with the other for about 20 minutes, police said.
“Apparently he wanted to kill himself,” Dallas police spokesman Sgt. Warren Mitchell said. “He was telling his mom over the telephone that he wanted to kill himself. He didn’t want to go back to the penitentiary and stuff like that. So it very well could be death by a cop, suicide.”
Terrell was sentenced to five years of deferred adjudication probation in a previous Dallas aggravated robbery case, according to records.
He made a movement with the gun that officers thought was threatening and they began shooting, police said.
In the other shooting, the 16-year-old boy ran from a Mesquite officer toward a wooded area and ignored the officer’s commands to stop. He turned quickly toward the officer, who shot him once in the lower body.
It was later determined that the teen was unarmed. He faces charges of aggravated robbery and aggravated assault of a public servant.
Benjamin Anthony Joseph, 27, also was arrested and is likely to face an aggravated robbery charge, police said.
COpyright 2009 Dallas Morning News