Burglary Suspect Critically Wounded After Threatening El Paso Police Officers

UPDATED 5/1/15: The man shot by the officer has been identified as Erick Emmanuel Salas Sanchez. He has since died from his injuries.

A man who allegedly broke into a Lower Valley home Wednesday evening was critically wounded by one of the El Paso police officers responding to the scene.

According to published reports, two officers from the Mission Valley Regional Command were sent to investigate a call of a burglary in progress at a home near the intersection of Jesuit and Independence at about 9 o’clock Wednesday night.

Upon arriving, officers encountered a male they believed to be the perpetrator. EPPD spokesman Chris Mears told a local TV station that at some point the man “threatened the officers.” At that point, one of them deployed his taser, but that action was described as “ineffective” That's when the other officer “was forced to fire his duty handgun at the subject," according to Mears.

He did not say what the man said or did to make the officers feel threatened, if the suspect was armed, or if he was acting alone.

A woman who lives near the home where the shooting took place told KFOX 14 she heard “three to four gun shots” followed by “a girl yelling" seconds later.

The 22-year-old man was taken to an area hospital and is reportedly in critical condition.

As is standard practice for these circumstances, the officer who fired his handgun will be placed on administrative leave while police, Crimes Against Persons, and the Texas Rangers investigate the shooting.