Suspect shot by police officer at gas station in Liberty

LIBERTY, TX (KTRK) -- The Liberty police chief says one of his officers had to shoot a man Friday to protect a fellow cop.

It happened in a strip center off Highway 90. According to investigators, the 19-year-old suspect was robbing a check cashing business.

He reportedly forced two women who work there into the back and tied them up. But before that, a clerk hit a panic alarm.

Two officers came to help. They apprehended the suspect and were trying to arrest him, but they say as they were handcuffing him, the suspect attacked attacked that officer.

Then the other officer shot him.

"Any time that an officer is confronted, that's a deadly force situation," said Chief Thomas Claunch with the Liberty Police Department. "At this point, I'm not even sure he was actually searched."

The suspect who was shot by police was hit once in is torso. He was taken by Life Flight to Memorial Hermann Hospital. His condition is unknown.

The clerks and the officers are all OK. Police aren't saying who the officers are yet. We know a female officer who shot the man had worked there for two years. The other officer was still in training.

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