The man was sought in a Dallas homicide reported about 90 minutes earlier, police said.
DALLAS — A Dallas police surveillance team tried to pull over a car near Town East Mall late Saturday morning when a suspect got out armed, officers fired, and the man died at the scene, authorities said. The stop unfolded along the east service road of Interstate 635 by the Mesquite shopping center.
Police said the search began at about 10:15 a.m., when officers were called to the 9000 block of Markville Drive in Lake Highlands and found a woman shot. She was taken to a hospital and later died. Detectives identified a suspect and alerted colleagues tracking the vehicle. Shortly before noon, officers located the man near the mall and moved in for what Mesquite police described as a high-risk stop. The department later said the encounter became an “armed confrontation.” No officers were injured. Officials did not immediately release the names of the suspect or the woman, citing the active investigation and next-of-kin notifications.
The frontage lanes outside the mall filled with patrol cars, unmarked units, and crime scene vans as holiday shoppers watched from storefronts and parking lots. A dark sedan with doors open sat behind yellow tape stretched along the grass. “We heard commands, then a quick series of shots,” said Chris Montgomery, who had just exited a restaurant nearby. Dallas Police Executive Assistant Chief Jesse Reyes said the suspect exited the vehicle with a weapon when officers attempted the stop. The agency did not say how many officers fired or how many rounds were discharged. Detectives canvassed nearby businesses for surveillance video, and evidence markers dotted the shoulder through the afternoon.
Mesquite police said they assisted with traffic control and initial scene management while Dallas police led the investigation, including interviews with officers and witnesses. The Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office will confirm the suspect’s identity and cause of death. Detectives are working to determine the relationship, if any, between the slain woman and the suspect and to map the timeline from the Lake Highlands apartment complex to the mall area along LBJ Freeway. Officials said preliminary information suggests the suspect fled the Dallas scene, was tracked to Mesquite, and was confronted during the attempted stop around 11:45 a.m.
Saturday’s incident comes as police have emphasized quick deployments to violent-crime calls and the use of surveillance details to locate suspects before they move farther from original scenes. Town East Mall typically draws heavy weekend crowds in December, and stores briefly limited access as officers closed portions of the frontage road. No bystanders were reported injured. Employees at several shops said managers told them to keep customers inside until officers cleared the immediate area, then gradually reopened doors after the scene stabilized.
Standard procedures call for the officers who fired to be placed on administrative leave while the department’s special investigations unit reviews body-worn camera footage, collects statements, and examines ballistic evidence. Findings will be routed to the Dallas County district attorney’s office for independent review. Officials did not announce a public briefing time Saturday but said updates would follow once the medical examiner confirms the names and next of kin are notified. Investigators also plan to pull license-plate and camera data to track the vehicle’s movements between the two scenes and to compare shell casings recovered in Dallas and Mesquite.
Shoppers described a brief, chaotic stretch and a quick return to normal traffic on the freeway. “People were crouching behind trucks, then officers waved us back toward the stores,” said Erica Lin, who was headed to a movie. By late afternoon, tow trucks had removed vehicles tied to the stop and detectives had completed most of their grid search along the grass. The homicide investigation that began in Lake Highlands and the use-of-force review in Mesquite remained active as of Saturday evening, police said.
Officials said the next milestone will be release of the suspect’s identity and a preliminary timeline that links the two scenes, expected after evidence is processed and family members are notified.
Author note: Last updated December 21, 2025.