By Daniel Borunda
El Paso Times
EL PASO, Texas — An El Paso police officer was shot Monday night in the Lower Valley.
A police spokesman said that an officer was shot on the 8100 block of North Loop by Yarbrough Drive.
The shooting occurred about 9 p.m. near the busy intersection that includes fast-food restaurants and stores.
The officer was taken by ambulance to a hospital in unknown condition.
A massive search for the shooter, including police dogs and a helicopter with a spotlight, continued late Monday night in the area. Officers from other parts of the city were sent to help.
More than a dozen police cars were at the scene. North Loop was blocked and a portion of Yarbrough was blocked as a search and an investigation continued.
Channel 9-KTSM reported that a witness said that the officer had made a traffic stop on a car when another person passed by and fired several gunshots. The driver of the stopped car then gave first aid to the wounded officer, KTSM reported.
The shooting occurred the same day that a 22-year-old El Paso man allegedly armed with handgun was shot and killed by police outside the Quality Inn & Suites, 6099 Montana in the East-Central area. The man had allegedly threatened a hotel clerk with the gun and then allegedly pointed the gun at three police officers when he was shot, police officials said.
The man’s name had not been released.
It was unknown if the shootings were connected.
The last El Paso police officer shot and killed in the line of duty was Officer Angel Andrew Barcena, who was fatally shot while responding to a family violence call at a West Side home on Sept. 24, 2004. He had graduated from the police academy a month before he was killed.
Copyright 2014 the El Paso Times