Arlington police chief speaks about officer killed on the way to work

[Music] Che M check one two three M check one two three okay all right cool you're GNA roll two one three two one to so far that changes let meix me just in case anybody shut up a little late anybody need a whitee balance or a mic check Chief will be down in just a few minutes good all right mik check one two three everyone's getting good levels one two three check check okay yes sir for El for to you have turn wa name s for for you guys ready y everybody's good yep okay uh good afternoon everyone and thank you for being here uh earlier this morning I received the call that every police chief pray they never get I learned that I beloved member of Arlington Police family officer Darren McMichael was killed in a car crash as he was on his way into work it's a hard day we are devastated we are heartbroken I spent the good part of the morning at Baylor Hospital in Dallas with officer McMichael's family and many of the his fellow officers with Arlington Police Department please please pray for them they are grieving they need your support now more than ever his wife is also an Aron police officer we send our love to her as well officer McMichael was hired by the Arlington Police Department in January 1999 and he served our community for nearly 25 years he spent the last 13 years of his honorable career with our motorcycle unit which is one of the most visible units of our in our department many in our many many in our community uh interact with him riding uh his motorcycle and they grew to love him as we all did he also served in Patrol and as a detective here in the north Patrol district and I just want to uh take a moment to clarify that officer uh that officers who are reporting to work uh for the day are considered in line of Duty uh therefore this will Mark our 9th AR in Arlington's history that officer has been killed in a line of duty I know you have questions about the crash uh I respectfully ask that those questions be directed to Dallas County uh Sheriff's Office which continues to conduct the investigation I will however say this we understand they're looking for a vehicle as part of their investig ation anyone out there with information please please please contact the Dallas County Sheriff's Office the days and weeks ahead will be difficult but the men and women of the Arlington Police Department are very re resilient and together we'll get through this with that I'll take a couple questions the driver um involved in this incident that took off what are your words first I would just say hey please turn yourself in um we are hurting as an organization and we need closure and as I asked anybody that have seen anything on the highway that morning or this morning please contact the Dallas County Sheriff's Office Chief I know that this may or may not be a question for you if it's not I apologize uh the last I heard if memory Serv me correctly is that the suspect vehicle was a dark color Dodge or Chrysler I I'm not going to get into the investigation I I don't know and what I would say is you know please contact Dallas County Sheriffs they can probably provide you more information on the investigation Chief you spoke about the weeks and months ahead how are you getting through this day how are you supporting your officers so it's about making sure we communicate I think that you know if we don't compartmentalize this we have to communicate we have to make sure that our officers are well um we have our peer counselors out there with our officers um I'm just so grateful for the surrounding agencies around us who actually sent uh their peer uh counselors here for our officers and I think that that's what it's about for North Texas when one off when one organization is hurt um we come together and they did and and we do appreciate all of the assistance that they provided Chief can you share with us the last interaction or conversation that you had with officer McMichael can you recall that at all that I can't I'm sorry I are there any memorials or vigs planned as of right now right now we are so early into this um you know right now we're still grieving um you know as an organization and I think that you know as days and weeks go on then we can actually talk about aori memorializing this day but right now it's just too early he was with you guys for a long time just you know what was he known for around here did he have a nickname tell us a little bit about him nick names well here it is you know but it's more about him being a part of the motorcycle unit as I said before that is probably one of the most visible units that we have um he is is he was loved by our community he spent a lot of time out there and uh you know he's going to be truly missed not only by the department but by our community I understand that his wife was falling behind at the time of the incident can you tell us she on her way into work as well and she obviously witnessed this yes she she was behind him uh unfortunately she had to witnessed this tragic incident she was on her way into work that's correct car no Chief the motorcycle that the officer was riding on was that the department issued motorcycle or is that his own personal motorcycle it's a it's Department issued motorcycle Chief um this is going to be a very busy night for your department with the Beyonce concert so you're going to have officers out there um you know doing their job keeping people safe what's been the word from you to them as they continue to do their job hurting because of losing officer so one of the things I just want them to know they have my full support um I want to make sure that each and every one of them are getting the help um if they need peer counseling that they are getting that help uh and we're just trying to make sure as an organization we're providing them as much support as we possibly can because this is going to be a really troubling T troubling time over the next couple weeks okay one more one more question is it standard for the county to take over or is this jurisdiction due to the location uh why the sheriff's why not uh your Police Department well it was uh jurisdictional um it was in Dallas County or Dallas um and I think that stretch of highway where the incident occurred uh the sheriff departments actually handles all accidents over there question thank you I just wanted to ask are any other departments providing Patrol officers anyone to give you all extra Staffing support today I I can tell you uh all of the organ organizations or all the police department surrounding us uh they all are willing to step up if we need so if we need it cond thank you I appreciate [Music] it and thank you obviously the coming days and weeks as we discuss things with the Department with this with his family we'll figure out funeral and Memorial wise if that's something that they'll uh want to make a little more public and and we'll we'll coordinate all those details with you guys so thank you thank you

Channel: FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth

Views: 7,324

Keywords: breaking news, livestream, kdfw, texas, news, arlington, i-20, crash, more

Id: QcwA-olPbUg

Length: 17min 46sec (1066 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 21 2023