Injured Big Spring officer returns to duty following May shooting

Editor’s Note: The video above first aired in May.

BIG SPRING, Texas (KMID/KPEJ)- A Big Spring Police Department officer injured in a shooting in May has returned to work in an administrative capacity, the Department said on Wednesday.

Cpl. Robert King is expected to “make a full recovery”, Big Spring PD said in a statement.

King, who has been employed by the Department since August of 2020, was injured by a suspect on May 14 after the suspect opened fire after a police pursuit.

According to the department, around 2:50 a.m. on May 14, deputies with the Howard County Sheriff’s Office Department and officers with Big Spring PD were dispatched to Crossroads bar, located in the 1300 block of S Highway 87 after a man pulled out a firearm. While enroute dispatch informed officers the suspect had departed in a dark blue car.

Officers in the area found a vehicle matching the description and attempted a traffic stop; when the driver refused to pull over, a pursuit began.

Big Spring PD said the pursuit ended when the vehicle crashed into a fence in the 1300 block of Barnes near the intersection of Barnes and S. Monticello. That’s when King reportedly ordered the driver out of the vehicle and was subsequently shot by the suspect.

Investigators said King then returned fire on the driver of the vehicle and sought cover behind the patrol vehicle. At that point, the driver ran away from the scene and King was flown to University Medical Center in Lubbock where he was treated for serious injuries sustained in the shooting.

Big Spring PD then began a several hour hunt for the suspect, who was later apprehended after he was caught running into a storage shed behind a home in the 2000 block of Alabama.

The suspect was identified as Orlando Montanez; he’s facing several charges in connection with the incident, including Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon on a Peace Officer Causing Serious Bodily Injury, a first-degree felony.

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