The Texas Rangers are investigating a shooting in the 1500 block of Robertson Avenue in Copperas Cove.
In a press release sent to 25 News from the Copperas Cove Police Department, an off-duty police officer was involved in the shooting.
The release explained that the officer was not injured, yet a female driver was sent to Baylor Scott and White Hospital in Temple with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds.
25 News was at the scene of the shooting when a woman in a light blue hospital gown and multiple wounds stopped by the crime scene asking officers working to retrieve her phone from what she says was her vehicle, the one that was involved in the shooting.
“I'm a victim that got shot by an off-duty police officer that did not identify himself,” Lacresha Murray, the woman on the scene said. “For no reason, I didn't approach him, I didn’t threaten him. I don't do anything. He just opened fire for no reason.”
This officer-involved shooting adds to other recent shootings in our area.
“Tell me you're a police officer? Why are you arguing with me like you're a regular person like you didn't do any of that,” Murray said, thinking back to the incident. “You opened fire and shot me six times and that was it.”
When asked for the story in her own words, Murray explains that she was heading to her Copperas Cove home when she began feeling ill.
She explained that she made a U-turn in the middle of a residential road.
She said that the silver truck behind her went around her vehicle and proceeded to go slow.
In a hurry to get to AdventHealth of Central Texas in Killeen, she then went around the other vehicle.
She said the driver behind her started tailgating her car, which made Murray upset.
She explained that when she reached the stop sign at the 1500 block of Robertson Ave., she got out of the vehicle to confront the driver.
“I got out, jumped out [holding my hip area] like what's your problem bro,” she questioned. “As soon as I did that he pulled a gun.”
She said she retreated to her vehicle when he began shooting.
“I ran back to my truck to get in and drive out,” she said. “He just started shooting, all I could do was lean over and he hit me six times.”
A 17-year law enforcement veteran turned Texas A&M Central Texas professor, Dr. Tammy Bracewell explained that there are numerous circumstances when off-duty officers are safer just to call someone that’s on the clock.
”In most cases, it really is those times when a life is in danger when you see off-duty officers acting in the capacity of a police officer,” Bracewell explained.
Officer-involved shootings are familiar to us here in Central Texas.
We witnessed the Killeen manPatrick Warren Senior get gunned down by a Killeen Police Department officer back in January.
While there was a College Station officer-involved shooting Sunday in Brazos County.
With these in mind, the question now is, are we seeing a similar pattern?
Dr. Bracewell explained that it’s nearly impossible to group all officer-involved shootings together.
“Every single one of them is vastly different," said Bracewell. “So you can't put the word trend on them because you got to look at them individually.”
Murray then told 25 News that during the altercation, she did not know the man with the gun was an officer.
She said that he never identified himself until curious neighbors started filming the incident.
“At the time, when he's looking back and seeing these guys recording, he turned around, then he took out his badge,” she said.
25 News reached out to both the Copperas Cove Police Department and the Texas Rangers.
Both departments declined an interview and explained that no additional information is available at this time.
