Police involved in shooting near Arlington hotel

ARLINGTON, Texas - Arlington police were involved in a shooting Friday morning near the Baymont Inn & Suites.

An alert person spotted someone suspicious at the hotel and called police. When they arrived and saw a stolen car, they say the suspect hit reverse and tried to run down the officers.

Lt. Chris Cook, a spokesman for the Arlington Police Department, said around 10 a.m. officers responded to a call about a group of three suspicious people in a white care outside at the hotel in the 2400 block of Diplomacy Drive.

When the officers arrived they spotted a man, later identified as 39-year-old Shaun Veloz, and a woman inside the car, which came back as possibly stolen out of Dallas.

They approached the car and gave the couple several verbal commands. Lt. Cook said the driver refused to respond and started trying to flee. At the same time officers were able to pull the woman out of the passenger side of the car.

“While that’s going on they noticed the driver is trying to get it into gear. It goes into reverse. Then it goes back into park. The car dies at one point. He gets the car started again from what I’m being told and at that point he reverses up. When he reverses his vehicle he strikes one officer in the left knee. He strikes a second officer that’s standing on the passenger side,” he said.

Lt. Cook said the second officer was knocked onto the ground. He fired at least one shot and hit Veloz.

Veloz was taken to a local hospital in an unknown condition. The officer who was knocked to the ground was also taken to a local hospital. His injuries are said to be non-life-threatening.

The woman who was a passenger in the car was taken into custody but was later released. A third person was also located inside the hotel but was released as well.

Police plan to interview witnesses and review dash cam video as part of the investigation.

“We don’t know anything on charges yet. We’re trying to figure out what they were doing at the hotel and why they were in a potentially stolen vehicle,” Lt. Cook said.

Veloz has been charged with two felony counts of aggravated assault on a peace officer and one charge of unauthorized use of a vehicle.

The officer who fired the shots will be placed on routine administrative leave.