Texas Briefly

Officer killed, suspect wounded in Dallas-area shooting

MESQUITE (AP) — A shooting outside a suburban Dallas supermarket left a police officer dead and a suspect wounded on Friday, authorities said.

It happened about 1:40 p.m. outside an Albertson’s supermarket in Mesquite, Police Chief David Gill said. The officer was responding to a report of a disturbance in the store parking lot when the suspect pulled a gun and opened fire, striking the officer twice, he said. The officer returned fire, wounding the suspect once.

Both were taken in critical condition to a Dallas hospital, where the officer died, Gill said. The suspect was being treated at the hospital. Gill said he did not know his current condition.

No identities were released, but Gill said the slain officer was a 21-year law enforcement veteran.

None injured in East Texas crash-landing of a small plane

CLEVELAND (AP) — The pilot of a small plane managed to avert a serious crash Thursday when he landed next to a busy southeast Texas highway, authorities said.

The plane with three people aboard was on a flight from Jennings, Louisiana, to Junction, Texas, when it lost power, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The pilot was attempting an emergency landing shortly after 2 p.m. about four miles (six kilometers) north of Cleveland, Texas, when the front landing gear on the single-engine Beechcraft A36 clipped a sport utility vehicle on U.S. 59, then crash-landed in a field beside the highway, the DPS said in a statement.

None of the three people aboard the plane or the SUV's lone occupant were injured in the emergency 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Houston, the DPS said.

San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said the pilot was lucky.

“This obviously skilled pilot was able to bring his Beechcraft to a near-perfect resting place paralleling I-69 without causing any injury to traveling motorists or residents in this rural community," he said in a statement.