Arlington Officer Injured In Shootout Home from Hospital
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ARLINGTON (CBS 11 NEWS) - An Arlington police officer wounded while attempting to arrest a murder suspect is out of the hospital.
Officer Eddie Johnston was shot late Monday night at an apartment complex near the University of Texas at Arlington campus.
He was helping Saginaw Police serve a warrant for a man suspected in the weekend murder of a 17-year-old Jordan Miles.
A UTA student, 23-year-old Joel Conner McCommon, was also wounded in the gun battle and remains hospitalized. He is expected to recover and is facing multiple charges.
Meanwhile, the murdered teen's family would have been celebrating his birthday, Tuesday. Instead, they are planning a funeral and wondering how trouble managed to find the teen in suburban Saginaw.
"We thought we had gotten him to a point where he was in a safe place," says the teen's uncle, Norman Miles, "and the argument now, was where he was going to college."
According to Saginaw Police, Miles was gunned down just after 2:00 p.m. Saturday in the 200 block of Creekside after receiving a phone call that lured him outside.
Witnesses reported hearing an argument and then a single gunshot.
Saginaw Police late Tuesday said they did not have a motive in the killing; but, have confirmed that McCommon and Miles were somehow acquainted.
Family members tell CBS 11 they had not met the suspect and his name was unfamiliar. Still: "The fact that this is someone that is dangerous enough, brazen enough to shoot a police officer as well as this tragedy against my nephew allegedly, this is someone that we need to get off the streets for lots of reasons," says Miles.
Meanwhile, he adds that the 'why' of the killing matters less than the fact that police have identified a suspect. And while an arrest in a child's murder is hardly a gift on what should have been his birthday, family members say, it is better than nothing.
"We can't have Jordan back," says Miles, "but we wanted to have justice for him."
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