IRVING, Texas (AP) - A police officer was shot and killed as he responded to a robbery at a sporting goods store that had just closed on Christmas Eve, authorities said.
Several employees were in the store at the time, but no one was injured, police said. No customers were in the store.
About 30 minutes after the Oshman's store closed Sunday, police got a call about a robbery in progress there, police spokesman Lt. David Tull said. Three officers responded to the call.
One of the officers was shot when he confronted three men at the back of the store. Police identified the officer as 29-year-old Aubry Hawkins, who had been with the department since October 1999.
Police said the robbers fled after herding the employees into a corner of the store.
Late Sunday night, police questioned the employees at police headquarters.
Lou Morris, whose son Andrew is a cashier at the store, said she arrived at the store at 8 p.m. to find crime tape and police cars around the building.
''I talked to Andrew earlier in the day, and he said he'd be home about 6:30. When it got to be 7 or 7:30 I started to get worried,'' she told the Dallas Morning News.
Police were looking for three men seen leaving in a 1996 white Ford Explorer that was stolen from a store employee.