Just seven weeks after being sworn in as leader of the Dallas police force, David Brown learned on Father's Day that his 27-year-old son gunned down a suburban officer in a weekend shootout with police.
Investigators say 37-year-old Lancaster officer Craig Shaw was killed Sunday just minutes after Brown's son fatally shot a stranger in what authorities say was a random attack.
"This, in my opinion, is the worst possible personal tragedy any chief of police could have," said William Rathburn, who served as Dallas police chief from 1991 to 1993.
Brown, described by friends and colleagues as a hard-charging, private man, sent a message to the police department Tuesday acknowledging that the past few days had been "troubling and emotional." He offered condolences to the families of the two men his son killed.
"My family has not only lost a son, but a fellow police officer and a private citizen lost their lives at the hands of our son," Brown said in the statement. "That hurts so deeply I cannot adequately express the sadness I feel inside my heart."
His son, named David Brown Jr., had a minor criminal record, pleading no contest to misdemeanor delivery of marijuana in 2004 after originally being charged with a felony.
The younger Brown's live-in girlfriend, Misty Conaway, called Lancaster police to their apartment Sunday morning, seven hours before the shootings, according to 911 tapes released to local media outlets. She said Brown was having "a psychotic breakdown" and had hit her, local media reported. Conaway didn't file a formal complaint, but she and her children were taken to the police station.
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