An 18-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department, Officer Matthew Bacon, tragically took his own life just one day after being involved in the fatal shooting of murder suspect Corey Thomas. Officer Bacon was part of the U.S. Marshals fugitive task force, which was serving an arrest warrant to Thomas at a Dallas apartment complex on August 7.
During the incident, Officer Bacon and at least three other officers fired their service weapons after Thomas allegedly produced a gun and pointed it in their direction. Thomas was transported to a hospital but succumbed to his injuries. He was wanted for an alleged murder that occurred on July 24, 2023, in Dallas.
According to internal DPD memos, Officer Bacon died by suicide on August 8, just one day after the shooting. Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia expressed his condolences and urged other members of the force to seek help if struggling with mental health issues.
The Dallas Police Department had planned to hold a press conference to provide details about the incident, but it was postponed without a rescheduled time or date. The department released a brief video containing security camera footage from the apartment complex but did not include bodycam footage from the arresting officers. None of the officers involved were wearing body-worn cameras at the time, citing a federal memorandum of understanding that requires an amendment currently under review.
The Dallas Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit is conducting an ongoing investigation into the officer-involved shooting. This incident marks the seventh officer-involved shooting for the department in 2023. Additionally, a separate shooting involving an undercover police officer occurred early Wednesday morning, making it the eighth incident.
