Grand Prairie Standoff Ends With Suspect Dead

GRAND PRAIRIE, TX — A police standoff with an armed gunman near the new IKEA store in Grand Prairie ended Monday afternoon when responding officers shot a suspect, police said.

Officers were first sent to the scene around 1:29 p.m. to perform a welfare check on a man reportedly slumped over in a black Cadillac near the IKEA parking lot.

Grand Prairie Police Department spokesman Mark Bethesda said officers tried to talk with the man, but he pulled a rifle from within his car. Officers were forced to retreat, he said.

Police continued negotiations with the suspect, but he fired the gun at officers, forcing officers to return fire, Bathesda said.

Negotiations continued a third time before the man again pulled his gun.

Officers then fired more rounds into the Cadillac, and the man was found dead, the spokesman said.

Tony London, a witness eating in the IKEA cafe, told reporters he was having lunch with a friend in the store's cafe when he heard the shots ring out.

London said he heard around dozen gunshots as he sat in the cafe.

An officer came into the store and told the customers to move to safety in the back of the cafe, London said.

He then heard a rapid volley of gunshots ring out.

Moments later, police then rushed him and other store patrons to safety in a cellar-like space in the store's basement, he said.

The gunman never entered the store.

Bathesda said police will release further details after an investigation is complete. The gunman's identity has not been released at this time.

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