Two El Centro officers also wounded in sniper ambush

Two Dallas County Community College District officers were injured in the chaos at El Centro College Thursday night, but they did not leave the scene.

El Centro said in a statement posted on its website Sunday night that Cpl. Bryan Shaw and Officer John Abbott were hurt while guarding the entrance to the college on Lamar Street. Shaw was hit under his vest by bullet fragments. He was treated at the scene returned to help other officers and protect civilians.

“At one point, he reached under his vest and came out with a handful of blood, so he realized that he was injured but did not leave his post,” DCCCD police chief Joseph Hannigan said of Shaw. “He stayed there the entire night until the incident was under control, and then saw first aid from EMS on the scene.”

Abbott was struck by flying glass on both legs. He was bleeding, but the former Navy medic went over to help fallen DART Officer Brent Thompson. He tried to render aid, but was too late. Thompson died at the scene. Hannigan said the two knew each other because Abbott is a former DART officer.

Abbott reportedly treated his own wounds and then got back to work.

DCCCD Police said gunman Micah Xavier Johnson fired through glass doors to enter El Centro Building C. That’s how the fragments hit the two officers.

Both men are now resting at home.

Dallas Police previously said seven officers and two civilians were hurt in the attack. That number did not include the El Centro College officers.

DCCCD Police said 58 people were also trapped in two El Centro buildings Thursday night, including eight in a janitorial closet one floor below gunman Johnson’s hideout in Building C.