Holly MatkinGarland, TX – Two Garland police officers and a police K9 were injured while trying to apprehend an armed suspect on Sunday night (video below).
Cell phone footage captured the moment when one of the officers was dragged and run over by the suspect’s vehicle.
The incident occurred at a convenience store near Glenfield Drive and South First Street at approximately 9:30 p.m., the Garland Police Department (GPD) said in a press release.
According to witnesses, an armed suspect showed up at the store in a red Infiniti and pulled up behind a customer’s vehicle, blocking it in.
When an employee asked him to move his car, the suspect allegedly pulled out two handguns and began firing them into the air, according to police.
“What are you going to do?” the gunman yelled.
The suspect, later identified as 29-year-old Gabriel Cobarrubias, was inside the store when police arrived at the scene.
Officers spotted his vehicle running in the parking lot, and were aware that Cobarrubias had allegedly fired his weapons prior to their arrival, according to the press release.
When he exited the store a moment later, officers ordered him to surrender.
Instead, Cobarrubias headed back into the building.
After officers attempted to speak with him, the suspect abruptly left the store and made a beeline for his running vehicle, police said.
They ordered him to stay away from the car, but he allegedly ignored them and got behind the wheel, according to the press release.
One of the officers managed to reach into the driver’s side door in an attempt to apprehend him, at which point Cobarrubias slammed the vehicle into reverse and rapidly accelerated, police said.
The trapped officer was dragged through the parking lot by the vehicle until the suspect suddenly turned the wheel, freeing him.
In the process, the car ran over his leg.
A second officer was hit by the passenger side door as he tried to stop the fleeing gunman, police said.
Cobarrubias sped away as a Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) helicopter tracked him overhead, according to the press release.
When the suspect reached an alley in the 2000-block of Merrimac Trail, he bailed out of the car and made his way to the back door of a home, police said.
He then turned away from the house and ran into a nearby field.
A Garland K9 and additional officers responded to the area and ultimately located Cobarrubias hiding in a drainage pipe, the GPD said.
According to police, the violent suspect injured the police K9 before he was taken into custody.
Investigators later determined that Cobarrubias was wanted for felony burglary in Dallas County.
Police said they located both of his guns, one of which had been stashed in the backyard of the home he approached on Merrimac Trail.
The officer who was dragged and ran over by the fleeing suspect was rushed to a local hospital with a fractured tailbone and multiple abrasions on his legs and arms, according to the press release.
He was treated and released to recover at home.
The officer who was struck by the door of the fleeing vehicle suffered minor injuries to his hip and knee.
The extent of the police K9’s injuries have not been released.
Cobarrubias has been charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, discharge of firearms in certain municipalities, and two counts of aggravated assault against a police officer.
Watch the incident unfold in the video below. Warning – Graphic Content:
