DALLAS — The Dallas police officer killed in a southeast Oak Cliff shooting Thursday night has been identified by family as a former school teacher who’d just completed police training.
Darron Burks, 46, was fatally wounded in the gunfire, his mother, Cherie Jeffrey, told The Dallas Morning News when reached by phone Friday morning. Jeffrey said she was notified by officers at her home.
Two other officers, who have not been publicly identified, were injured in crossfire, according to Dallas police. Their injuries and conditions were not immediately known Friday morning.
Burks graduated from the police academy in December. He previously taught math at Texans Can Academies, according to his LinkedIn profile. Burks, of Hampton, Ark., earned a bachelor’s degree from Paul Quinn College, where he played football and served as president of his fraternity, Omega Psi Phi, his profile says.
In social media tributes, people described Burks as a caring friend who left an impact serving his community as an officer, in the classroom and at his college.
Several shared their disbelief and heartbreak. Don James described him as “one of the coolest dudes in the world” in a Facebook post. “Whether you saw him everyday or once a year, he greeted you with the biggest smile and... a big hug because you were family to him,” the post says.
Byron Cameron Bailey wrote on Facebook that Burks “truly lived his life in service” and “there was not a purer soul, better brother, better Omega man.”
A candlelight vigil at the community center is scheduled Friday evening at the community center, social media posts say.
Dozens of police units responded about 10:10 p.m. to the 900 block of East Ledbetter Drive, near South Marsalis Avenue, according to an online police call log.
Responding officers found an officer shot in his marked patrol vehicle, Dallas police spokeswoman Kristin Lowman said. Police then exchanged gunfire with a suspect, injuring the two other officers, Lowman said.
The suspect, who has not been publicly identified, drove away toward Lewisville and was pursued by Dallas police officers in the northbound lane of Interstate 35E.
The suspect got out of the vehicle with a long gun, Dallas police said in a news release. Shots were fired and the suspect was killed just north of State Highway 121 Business, according to a post by the Lewisville police.
Four Dallas police officers have been killed in the line of duty since the July 7, 2016, ambush in downtown Dallas. Ninety-three Dallas officers have died in the line of duty since 1892, according to a police website.
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