What Happened

Shortly after midnight on Monday, February 23, 2026, a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper was shot during a foot pursuit in the 500 block of Westover Road in Big Spring, Texas. San Angelo LIVE! put the start of the encounter at about 12:40 a.m.; Fox 34 reported the shooting happened just before 1 a.m. near the Westover Hills Apartments.

According to reports citing DPS:

  • The trooper tried to stop a vehicle for a traffic violation. The driver did not stop, and the trooper used a PIT maneuver. The vehicle went into bushes.
  • Two people got out and ran. During the foot pursuit, one of them fired at the trooper, striking him, and the trooper returned fire.
  • The person who fired was killed. Fox 7 Austin reported that neither the trooper nor the person killed had been publicly identified.
  • The trooper was airlifted to a hospital in Lubbock, according to Fox 7 Austin, and was listed in stable condition.
  • The second person was arrested later at the same apartment complex without incident, according to Fox 34. Fox 34 also reported that no apartment residents were hurt.
  • The Texas Rangers are leading the investigation, with help from the Big Spring Police Department and the Howard County Sheriff's Office.

What is not public: where the trooper was hit, what aid was given at the scene and by whom, how long it took for backup and the helicopter to arrive, and the trooper's longer-term recovery. The Rangers' investigation is ongoing.

The Lesson

This is a general principle, not a finding about this response.

A foot pursuit can leave an officer alone and wounded, away from the car and the trauma kit. Whatever medical gear matters most has to be on the officer, not in the trunk: a tourniquet the officer can reach and apply with either hand, and a way to put pressure on a wound a tourniquet can't reach.

C-TECC's Direct Threat Care phase puts threat control and movement to safety first, then "managing massive hemorrhage utilizing tourniquets." The military TCCC guidelines (CoTCCC, May 2026) put it more simply: "Direct casualty to control hemorrhage by self-aid if able." That is military guidance, offered here as context for civilian law enforcement, not as a rule that applies automatically. The Joint Trauma System's Vascular Injury Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG ID 46) credits "the widespread training and use of tourniquets" with allowing casualties who would have died from extremity bleeding in the field to reach medical care.

Rural distance is part of the medical plan. In this case the trooper was flown to Lubbock. In much of West Texas and similar regions, the trauma center is a flight away. The JTS Hypothermia: Prevention and Treatment CPG (CPG ID 23) describes hypothermia, coagulopathy, and acidosis as the "triad of death," which is why keeping a wounded officer warm during a long wait or a flight is part of bleeding control, not an afterthought, even on a mild night.

What Your Agency Should Do Now

  • Audit what each officer carries on the body, not in the vehicle, and make sure a tourniquet is reachable with either hand when running gear is all the officer has.
  • Train the officer-down call for a foot pursuit: a location that makes sense to responders who have never seen the block, the officer's condition, and threat status, given while breathing hard or hurt.
  • Put air medical landing zones and trauma-center flight times into your rural shift briefings, so the first arriving units already know where the helicopter will set down.
  • Add a hypothermia barrier to patrol kits and practice using it during a simulated wait for air transport.

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