Arlington officers fatally shoot armed man after 911 call about suspicious person: police

Arlington police officers fatally shot a man who pointed a gun at them on Monday night Oct. 7 when they responded to a call about a suspicious person at an apartment complex, the Police Department said.

Officers were called to the apartment complex, in the 1400 block of E. Lamar Blvd., about 9 p.m. to investigate reports of a man who was looking into cars in the parking lot, police said. The 911 caller told dispatchers that the man might be armed.

When officers arrived, they found the 34-year-old man lying on his back on the hood of a vehicle, police said at a news conference on Tuesday morning Oct. 8. The officers shined a flashlight on him and identified themselves as police. The man sat up after the officers asked what was going on, and they noticed he had a gun on his hip.

The officers immediately commanded the man to show his hands, but he took out his gun and raised it, police said. Both officers fired their services weapons and shot him multiple times.

“It’s nobody’s desire to want to come to work and have to deal with a deadly force situation,” said Arlington Police Department spokesperson Courtney White at the news conference. “It’s just unfortunately that due to the subject’s actions that it led to this.”

The man was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said at the news conference. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office has identified him as Tony Dupree Coward .

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It’s not clear if Coward lived at the apartment complex. He did have relatives who live at that location, so that may have been why he was in the area, White said.

At this point in the investigation, there’s no indication the man broke into any vehicles at the complex, White said. Investigators are looking for surveillance cameras in the area to get a better understanding of what happened leading up to the 911 call.

Neither officer was injured, police said. One of them has been with the department for six years and the other one for about a year. Both men have been placed on administrative leave during the criminal and internal investigations into the shooting per APD policy.