On September 24th, an officer-involved shooting occurred in the 1800 block of Barnes Bridge Road and the 2000 block of Barnes Bridge in Dallas. This incident marks the 10th officer-involved shooting involving a Dallas police officer in 2023, with the suspect engaging officers with gunfire in eight of these cases.
The events leading up to the shooting began on September 22nd when Northeast covert officers attempted to conduct a traffic stop on a silver Cadillac SUV with a paper tag that did not match the vehicle. The driver fled, but there was no pursuit at that time.
On September 24th, around 12:30 a.m., covert officers spotted the same SUV with a different paper tag on Garland Road near PB Road. They followed the vehicle to the 1800 block of Barnes Bridge Road and requested uniformed officers to the scene. Officers Francis Vela and Oscar Macias responded.
Upon arrival, the officers encountered the suspect, later identified as 55-year-old Michael Shirley, outside the vehicle. They gave verbal commands for Shirley to stop and show his hands. Instead, Shirley pulled out a handgun from a shoulder holster, prompting Officer Vela to fire her weapon. The suspect fired back, and Officer Vela continued to shoot. Senior Corporal Andrew Pease, a covert officer on the scene, also fired his weapon at Shirley.
Shirley then got back into the stolen vehicle and fled northbound on El Capitan, eventually crashing in the 2000 block of Barnes Bridge Road. Officers Pease and Richard Renegar approached the suspect vehicle on foot from the east. Shirley fired at them for a second time, leading the officers to take cover behind a parked vehicle and return fire.
The suspect was hit by the officers’ gunfire and fell to the ground. A drone deployed at the scene captured footage showing Shirley on the ground with his weapon nearby. Officers approached the suspect with shields, placed him into custody, and administered first aid until medical personnel arrived. However, Shirley died at the scene.
The drone footage also revealed another person inside the vehicle, a woman who was unharmed in the crash. According to her statement, she had voluntarily entered the suspect’s vehicle, but he later handcuffed her to a seat belt in the second row. She is not considered a suspect and has not been charged.
Michael Shirley had a criminal record that included charges such as indecency with a child, unlawful carrying of a weapon, failure to identify as a fugitive, prohibited weapon discharge, burglary, evading arrest, theft of property, and driving with a suspended license. He had active warrants for failure to identify, false fictitious information, prohibited weapons, failure to comply with sex offender registration, and aggravated robbery.
The stolen vehicle Shirley was driving had been involved in an aggravated robbery in Garland. Crime scene technicians recovered dozens of shell casings at both shooting scenes. One Dallas Police Department vehicle was struck twice by gunfire, and an unoccupied vehicle on Barnes Bridge Road was also hit.
