Armed Robbers Hit Whataburger, Off-Duty Cop Was There To Give Them Some Bullets

Fort Worth, TX – An off-duty Dallas police officer shot two armed robbers at a Whataburger on Sunday morning.

The incident occurred when the officer stopped for food at about 4 a.m. on July 8 at the Whataburger on White Settlement Road.

Just before the off-duty officer arrived at the restaurant, police had received a 911 call about a robbery in progress at the Whataburger, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

The police report said that a man wearing a silver mask, a blue-hooded jacket, and gray sweatpants had walked into the restaurant and pointed a gun at people, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

That’s when the off-duty officer arrived for a meal and saw the robbery happening inside the Whataburger, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

He waited outside and confronted the robbers as they attempted to make their getaway. There was an altercation and the officer opened fire on the armed robbers, hitting two of them.

A third suspect escaped from the scene in a vehicle and has not yet been identified by police, according to KXAS.

"One injured suspect was apprehended on the parking lot of the business," Fort Worth Police spokesman Daniel Segura told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in an email Sunday. "The second one fled to a nearby business open area where he was later found."

A weapon used by one suspect during the robbery was found at the scene, Segura said.

The off-duty officer assisted responding Fort Worth officers in detaining the two men until they could be securely transported to a nearby hospital, KXAS reported. The officers applied a tourniquet to the injuries of the second suspect.

Fort Worth police identified the brave off-duty officer only as an 11-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department, but they have not yet released his name.

Nobody important was injured in the shooting.

“You know this shows the character of this officer, and of many officers on this department. He could have just kept driving. Nobody would have known the difference,” Mike Mata, president of the Dallas Police Association, told KDFW.

“But he knows his duty is to protect the public, whether it’s in the city of Dallas or the state of Texas, it’s to save lives, and he did his duty,” Mata said.

The suspects, Ladarious Shelby and Aaron Coleman, both 19, were transported to John Peter Smith hospital where one of them was in serious condition and the other had non-life-threatening injuries, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

Jail records showed that both Shelby and Coleman were facing aggravated robbery charges, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

The off-duty officer has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by his department, as is usual for officer-involved shootings.

The investigation of the Whataburger robbery was being conducted by the Fort Worth Police Department’s major case unit, KDFW reported.