Dallas Officer shot

[mtaylor]

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/myfox/pages/...Y&pageId=1.1.1

They just announced that the officer is in critical condition. Everyone keep this officer and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

[Jenna]

I hope he recovers.

[Lo523]

Prayers enroute.

[TXCharlie]

That's pretty close to one of the areas of town I did ride-alongs in a year or so ago, where the officers answering a domestic call at an apartment complex with us were afraid to sit in their parked cars for more than a couple of minutes at a time, out of concern about the good residents taking pot shots at them.

Those gang officers down there have my respect.

[mtaylor]

Unfortunately tonight another hero has passed away. My thoughts and prayers go out his family and all his fellow officers. No amount of words can ever convey how much I appreciate what you guys do!

[TXCharlie]

Damn.

RIP

[lewisipso]

^%$@$#%*((*!!!!!!!!!!

[Odd]

Rest well, and thank you Officer Smith.

[TXCharlie]

Funeral arrangements set for slain Dallas officer


06:23 PM CST on Wednesday, January 7, 2009


By TANYA EISERER, SCOTT GOLDSTEIN and STEVE THOMPSON / The Dallas Morning News

Funeral arrangements were finalized today for Dallas police Senior Cpl. Norman Smith, who was shot dead Tuesday at a southeast Oak Cliff apartment complex.
Video

v
Charles Payne

Video from friend:
http://www.dallasnews.com/video/dall...d=319465&shu=1

Two friends of Dallas police Senior Cpl. Norman Smith talk about the man behind the badge. Smith was shot and killed Tuesday evening while attempting to serve a felony warrant.

01/07/2009
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Friends remember fallen Dallas police officer Norman Smith
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Services will be at 11 a.m. Friday at The Potter’s House, 6777 W. Kiest Blvd., in Dallas. Burial services will follow at the Garden of Honor at Restland Memorial Cemetery at 9220 Restland Road in Dallas.

The Honor Flag will be raised at 3 p.m. Thursday at the Jack Evans Police Headquarters, and a candlelight vigil is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

There also will be open visitation at Restland from noon to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Today, people have expressed their condolences by leaving flowers at a police car parked in front of downtown police headquarters at 1400 Lamar Street.

Earlier today, Dallas police conducted a sweep through the complex where Smith was killed.

Shortly before noon, at least 15 patrol cars arrived at the Oak Wood Place Apartments. Officers swarmed in to knock on doors, checking for possible arrest warrants and attempting to remove anyone who didn't belong in the area.

Authorities said the crime-ridden complex with 206 units was already a target for such a sweep sometime in 2009, but Smith's murder moved the complex to the top of the list.
Authorities were looking to execute five outstanding felony warrants on people in the complex. They were able to arrest one quickly.

"It just so happens he was walking out with marijuana in his hand when the officers were walking to another apartment," said Sgt. Dwaine Sides, a supervisor at the scene, as officers put handcuffs on a man who looked to be in his 20s. The man also had an outstanding family violence warrant, police said.

Smith, 43, was shot in the head on Tuesday evening in the 4900 block of Wadsworth Drive while attempting to serve a felony warrant. He was taken to Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, where he was declared dead.

Charles Patrick Payne, who has been charged with capital murder and two counts of attempted capital murder, was denied bond and placed under a suicide watch.
The man that police were serving with an aggravated robbery warrant, William Jobe, 29, was also in the east Oak Cliff apartment and was arrested after the shooting. A third man in the apartment was questioned and released, police said.

Police Chief David Kunkle said the officers serving the warrant were attempting a "ruse to try to get the suspects to the door without announcing that they were police officers."

"This was a high-risk situation," Kunkle said. "The officers were tactically well-positioned, but they were immediately met with gunfire."

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Video: City Council members honor fallen Dallas police officer
Link: Read a 2006 Dallas Observer article about Senior Cpl. Norman Smith's work
Link: Sign an online memorial for Cpl. Smith
City Hall blog: Dallas City Council reacts to Smith's killing


Smith joined the department in 1991 and would have marked his 18th year with the force today. He had an extensive knowledge of Dallas' gangs and was described by Kunkle as one of the department's finest police officers.

"I would have thought he was invincible," Kunkle said Tuesday night, choking back emotion. "He was a great, great street officer. He had the heart of a warrior."
Smith's death was thought to be the nation's first fatal shooting of an officer in the line of duty this year. He is the first Dallas officer shot to death in the line of duty since Mark Nix in 2007.


Lt. Sally Lannom, a former member of the gang unit, described Smith as a hard worker who knew his job well and would be sorely missed.
"It's a huge loss for the department and a huge loss for those of us who knew and loved Norm," Lannom said Tuesday.

Smith was married to Dallas police Lt. Regina Smith, whom he met while working at the Dallas County Jail.

Lannom said he was an expert on the gangs in the southern sector, where Tuesday's shooting occurred.

Senior Cpl. Norman Smith

"He worked that area in patrol," she said. "He knew that area. It made sense when he came to the unit to become the expert on the gangs in that part of town."
About 6 p.m. Tuesday, Smith and about six other gang-unit officers went to the Oak Wood Place Apartments to arrest Jobe.
Smith, flanked by two other officers, approached the door and knocked. Someone inside asked who was there, and Smith responded with a fake name, police officials said.
JIM MAHONEY/DMN
Dallas police officers and members of the department's gang unit place flowers in the driver's seat and on the dashboard of Senior Cpl. Norman Smith's patrol car Wednesday at Dallas police headquarters. Smith was shot and killed during a raid Tuesday evening. View larger More photos Photo store


When the suspected gunman opened the door, Smith yelled that they were the police, according to the preliminary investigation. The suspect then tried to close the door, and Smith pushed back. That's when he was shot.
Officers returned fire, frantically trying to pull their fallen comrade out of the line of fire as the gunman opened the door and continued shooting. No one else was injured in the gunbattle.
The three men inside the apartment surrendered, one at a time, within minutes of the shooting.
Oak Wood Place resident Ebony Hooks, 26, said she was walking to her apartment when the shooting occurred.
"I stopped to see the gang unit kick the door in, and then I started hearing gunfire," she said.
Police ordered her to go into her apartment. Then she heard the shouts, "Officer down! Officer down!" and she saw them drag the officer around a corner.

Charles Payne

"I grabbed my baby and ran," said Hooks, who has a 3-year-old daughter.
Hooks said she knew nothing about the occupants of the apartment where the shooting occurred. She said she thought they only moved in a week or so ago. The apartment had been vacant before that, she said.
Surrounded by a black wrought-iron fence, the complex has long been known as a haven for drug and gang activity.
In 1998, it was the scene of a gunbattle between police and drug suspects. Someone fired through an apartment wall, hitting Dallas police Officer Edward Menchaca in the hip. A second police officer was grazed by a bullet.
The officers were investigating a tip that a drug deal was going on inside the apartment.
Investigators this morning were back at the complex on the northeast corner of Wadsworth and Loop 12 taking pictures.

4950 block of Wadsworth Drive
Other members of the police department were offering each other support.
Kunkle said Smith's wife, who works in his office, was devastated by the news, just as he was.
"These are just people that I have tremendous love and affection for," he said. "They're all tough, but for me this is a really difficult situation."

Lannom said Smith's mother is from Europe, and he spent a portion of his youth there. Before joining the Dallas police, Smith worked as a Kaufman County sheriff's deputy.
G.J. McCARTHY/DMN
Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert (center) and Deputy Mayor Dwaine Caraway (right) console a member of the Dallas Police Department gang unit outside the Baylor University Medical Center emergency room after the shooting death of Senior Cpl. Norman Smith. View larger Photography Photo store


The Smiths have two teenage children, a boy and a girl. Those who knew the couple well said they enjoyed antiquing, collecting fine china and traveling in their off-hours.
The Norman S. Smith memorial fund has been established at the City Credit Union.

Staff writers Dan X. McGraw, Marissa Alanis and Joanna Cattanach contributed to this report.

[Captain America]

Day Is Done

Gone The Sun

From The Hills, From The Lake, From The Sky

All Is Well , Safely Rest

GOD is Nigh


Rest In Peace Ofc. Smith. Condolences to family and friends.

[CTR man]

It appears that God has taken another Cop's cop. The kind of cop that you guys in the profession really want to have around when the SHTF. My condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues of the fallen.

[kjlaw]

Rest easy my brother your work here is done and we shall carry on.

my thoughts with the friends and family of this fallen hero.

[Buttercup]

Rest in peace.

[Jenna]

Rest in peace.

[2 Blue 4 U]

Sorry to hear, Condolences to his family and friends. May he Rest in Peace.

[Wolven]

RIP