2 Officers Wounded, Suspect Killed in Texas Standoff

Hildalgo County, Texas, authorities say a gang member wanted for capital murder was killed Tuesday evening after he shot two police officers and opened fire several times during a standoff that lasted more than three hours.

Hildalgo County, Texas, authorities say a gang member wanted for capital murder was killed Tuesday evening after he shot two police officers and opened fire several times during a standoff that lasted more than three hours.

"The threat has been taken care of," Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra told reporters about 9 p.m. Tuesday. "He’s presumed dead at this time." The suspect was later found dead after the house was cleared by the McAllen bomb squad.

Edinburg police investigators attempted to arrest Joaquin Cibrian, 29, for the slaying of Gerardo Omar Melendez Verdin, 19, a Mexican national who’d been living in Mission. Investigators obtained a warrant for Cibrian’s arrest on a capital murder charge after Verdin was found dead July 16 in a vacant lot on the 2800 block of East University Drive.

Six Edinburg officers responded to the La Joya house Tuesday afternoon after police there said they'd spotted a vehicle that matched the description of one linked to the capital murder case, Edinburg Police Chief Rolando Castañeda told the Monitor. La Joya police, Department of Public Safety troopers and sheriff's deputies "already were following the suspect's vehicle."

"As our officers were getting out of the car, the suspect, which we have not identified yet, opened up on our officers," the chief said. Two Edinburg officers suffered gunshot wounds — one to the arm, the other to both legs and possibly elsewhere, according to authorities. "Right now, they're all doing fine," Castañeda said, without naming the officers wounded.

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