GRAND PRAIRIE, TEXAS (WBAP/KLIF News) — A Grand Prairie police officer is being praised for his professional conduct and keeping his cool when facing a suspect pointing what appeared to be a gun at him.
Officer Jeff Payne said he chased Michael May into a residential neighborhood the night of January 20. When May stopped and got out of his vehicle Payne began approaching him though May appeared to be pointing a gun at him. Payne told Fox 4 News, “I see him get out of the car and my first thought was I’m about to get shot because he’s out of the car well before I am and he’s already taken the stance and he’s already pointing at me.”
But then he noticed something.
“As I’m getting out of the car I’m looking at him and my eyes go straight to his hands and to me his hands looked empty.”
He didn’t pull the trigger. Instead, he pressed a remote control button that released his trained police dog from his SUV. The dog took the suspect down without hesitation and without being shot.
It turned out May did not have a gun but rather, a flashlight and a knife.
Grand Prairie PD Chief Steve Dye praised Officer Payne’s professionalism, saying it appears May was enticing officers to shoot him. And, while Officer Payne had every legal justification for shooting May the fact that he didn’t highlights “the difficult environment of policing and the split-second decisions that police officers, across the nation must make on a routine basis,” Dye said.
(Copyright 2017, WBAP/KLIF News. All rights reserved.)
