NewsWest 9
MIDLAND - The Texas Rangers and Midland Police Shoot Team are investigating after a deadly police shooting on Monday morning. Midland officers opened fire on 63-year-old Paul Holland, who was standing in his front yard. Nearby neighbors heard the fatal shots.
"I was shocked. I was really scared," Neighbor Hope Sanchez, said.
Her neighbor, Macaria Chavez agreed, "When I heard about this, I got scared. My God, this has never happened over here before."
Police say Holland came out of his home, with a gun in one hand, and a cell phone in the other. He was talking to negotiators.
"Some of our S.W.A.T. team members approached him from behind and asked him to stop what he was doing. He turned around and had a pistol in his hand. At that time, we had three officers who fired shots at him," Midland Police Public Information Officer, Tina Jauz, said.
The standoff started just before 11:30 in the morning. An officer had stopped by to check on Holland's wife, after police say they received a call from a concerned friend.
When his wife left the home with the officer, and Holland barricaded himself inside the house, the S.W.A.T. team was called to the scene. Police say Holland's wife warned them, her husband was armed.
"She said he had weapons, and that he wouldn't come out. He was threatening to kill himself and was threatening toward any officers that would show up on the scene," Jauz said.
