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Rush-Hour Shooting Suspect Dies

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Dec 24, 2008 9:40 pm US/Central

Rush-Hour Shooting Suspect Dies

Compiled From Staff Reports
DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ― Brian Smith, the man suspected of Monday's rush hour shooting rampage, died Wednesday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

One person died in those shootings, and Smith may be connected to another fatal shooting in Garland.

The 37-year-old died around 6 p.m. at Parkland Hospital. The former state trooper had been clinging to life since early Tuesday morning when Garland police say he shot himself during a standoff.

Smith is an ex-Utah State Trooper. To learn more about this life, click here.

Earlier on Wednesday, Garland police released more details about what happened the day four shootings were reported on Dallas-area streets during rush hour.

Police say Smith went to a Kroger pharmacy in Garland around 5:30 Monday night. He said he wanted to refill a prescription.

According to Garland Police Spokesperson Joe Harn, Smith was captured surveillance video robbing the pharmacy.

"He jumped over the counter with the gun, took oxycontin, jumped back over the counter and left the store," he said.

Oxycontin is the trade name for the painkiller oxycodone.

"An addiction to oxycodone can be life altering for people," said Dr. Jeff Phelps, a spine surgeon at North Hills Hospital. "It gets to the point where their main goal is to acquire more oxycodone."

Dr. Phelps warns oxycodone may cause someone to only care about getting more of the drug, but it does not make a person snap. It can also cause feelings of despair and depression for someone already having psychological issues.

A few minutes after the robbery, the first deadly shooting was reported on Jupiter and Marquis.

Garland police are still waiting for conclusive results to link him to the initial deadly shooting. Twenty-year-old Jorge Lopez died when someone pulled up along his car and fired several shots at him.

Dallas police say ballistic evidence ties Smith to the three shootings on 635 that followed. William Scott Miller, 42, was driving a United Van Lines rig when he was shot and killed. The two other victims survived.

Garland police were able to locate Smith a few hours later when they responded to a welfare call from Keller Police.

"Family evidentially had contact with him, said he was suicidal. They believe him to have a gun," said Harn. "He had a cell phone, so when they pinged him, [they discovered] he was in the Garland area."

Smith held officers at bay for three hours. Police say he never communicated with them.

"He started to leave. We pulled a vehicle in so he could not leave. That's when officers, as they approached, heard a gunshot," said Harn. "Certainly with everything that was working that evening, the talk was could this possibly be him? Sure, but did we really know it was him? No, we did not."

Police say they believe Smith used the same automatic gun in both the robbery and the standoff. 

A stretch of the normally busy I-635 was empty Wednesday morning as police searched for more clues.

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