An El Paso firefighter is dead after allegedly holding three police officers at gun point during a domestic dispute early Saturday morning.
"This is a quiet neighborhood and we always think we live on the most unimportant street in America, until last night," said David Stott, of East El Paso.
Stott said he didn't hear any gun shots, but instead was woken up by his dog barking. "Well, about 3:30, my dog started barking, so I was going to put her in the garage and then I saw lights outside and I looked and there was a couple of police officers".
Officers responded to 2024 Shadow Ridge at about 3:20 a.m. after the woman in the home, El Paso Police officer Martha De Anda, called 911 and said she was having a dispute with her husband, Alfonso De Anda, who is an El Paso firefighter.
"She was assaulted. She did have some injuries to her face and she was assaulted by her husband, she was not assaulted with a weapon, but she was assaulted with I guess a hand," said Javier Sambrano, a spokesperson for the El Paso Police Department.
Police say one sergeant initially responded to the call, and when he got there Alfonso got a gun and aimed it at the him and at his wife. Another sergeant showed up minutes later and also had the gun pointed at him.
Both sergeants tried to get Alfonso to put down his gun.
"They gave him commands to drop the weapon. After numerous attempts and commands for him to drop the weapon, he continued aiming at the officers and continued threats to take his wife's life," said Sambrano.
Fearing for their own safety, police say Sgt. Kenneth Law was forced to shoot Alfonso in the chest to end the situation.
El Paso police said they couldn't have just shot Alfonso in one of his limbs because there was a threat he could have hurt someone else.
"You gotta understand when a person is confronted in that situation and what the law requires us, is for you to stop the threat," said Sambrano.
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