Central Texas police chief shot working off-duty job

TEMPLE, TX -- A Central Texas police chief working an off-duty security job at a bar in Temple is hospitalized in critical but stable condition after he was shot during a struggle with a customer.

Temple police say Darrell Allen, the chief in Marlin, is being treated at Baylor Scott and White Hospital after the shooting early Sunday. Police have termed his undisclosed injuries life threatening but say physicians decided not to perform surgery.

Police say a 24-year-old Temple man, Derrick Wayne Gamble, is in custody, awaiting arraignment on a charge of aggravated assault on a peace officer.

Authorities say Allen was trying to detain Gamble at the Temple bar when he was shot.

Allen has been chief in Marlin, a town of some 6,000 about 30 miles northeast of Temple, since 2009.