ARLINGTON (1080 KRLD) - Four juveniles allegedly responsible for the robbery and assault of an off-duty Arlington police officer this morning are under arrest.
At around 8:30 this morning, an hour after the incident at the QuikTrip at Division and Collins in Arlington, police in Dallas stopped the suspect vehicle at a convenience store on East Ledbetter near Lancaster.
"They weren't even aware of our incident," says Arlington Police Lt. Christopher Cook. "They were actually doing some surveillance in their city in a high-crime area and located the vehicle. (They) believed the car was stolen (and) made a traffic stop."
It turns out that the white Mitsubishi Lancer with paper plates was, indeed, stolen.
Dallas officers then started searching the car for evidence.
"When they were searching the vehicle, they found our officer's identification card in there," says Lt. Cook. "And they contacted Arlington to say, 'Hey, has your officer ... been a victim of a burglary or something like that?' And we said no, he was actually a victim of a violent crime this morning."
Three of the four suspects were arrested at the scene, and the fourth was arrested a short time later.
The officer had just finished his shift and was filling up his car when he was robbed.
"Three suspects came up (and) began to assault him with their fists," Cook said earlier in the day. "And then at some point, he saw a pistol, and he felt the pistol striking him in the face and on top of the head. He does have some visible injuries on top of his head."
The officer was not taken to a hospital for treatment of his injuries.
"He's in good spirits," says Cook. "He's just so thankful that he wasn't seriously injured."
The time and location of the incident makes it even more brazen.
"That's a heavily-traveled area that time in the morning," Cook says. "A lot of people are going into work. And it's also daylight."
Because the officer's uniform shirt and duty belt were inside his car, the robbers had no idea that he was a police officer.
"They had no idea that the victim was an Arlington police officer until they started going through his wallet," says Cook. "They were looking for cash and his credit card, and then one of them came across this police ID, and then they realized they probably picked the wrong person to rob."
Due to the suspects' ages, police will not be identifying them.
They are being referred to the Tarrant County Juvenile Court.
