Updated at 11:40 a.m. Aug. 18: Revised to say the the suspect in the Blue Alert was arrested.
Just before 11:30 Monday night, many Texans’ phones started buzzing with a warning of a “Law Enforcement Blue Alert” in their area.
The message didn’t provide much detail, saying only that the alert was “in this area” and urging that people monitor radio and TV. There were reports of the message across the state.
The alert was connected to the shooting of a deputy Monday evening in Clay County, about 100 miles northwest of Fort Worth near the Texas-Oklahoma border.
According to the details of the alert, law enforcement officials were looking for a white four-door Cadillac, with few details available about the car’s driver.
The deputy who was wounded is expected to recover. The vehicle was found Tuesday morning, and the gunman was captured the next day.
But what is a blue alert, and what triggered the one Monday night? Here’s what you need to know:
What is a blue alert?
The Blue Alert program was created in August 2008 through an executive order by then-Gov. Rick Perry.
The alerts are meant to gather tips from the public to help capture criminals who kill or seriously hurt local, state or federal law enforcement officials.
Similar to the Amber Alerts that are meant to help rescue abducted children, Blue Alerts offer details about suspects and their vehicles so people can report sightings to authorities.
Only law enforcement agencies can ask the Department of Public Safety to issue a Blue Alert.
For the DPS to issue an alert, the requesting agency has to determine that suspects pose a serious threat to the public or other law enforcement officials, and detailed descriptions of their vehicles must be available.
The DPS website shows five Blue Alerts issued in 2021, including an April case where authorities say a man shot a Burleson officer during a traffic stop, then later fatally shot a woman during a carjacking.
State Rep. Brooks Landgraf, a West Texas Republican whose bill to create a statewide active-shooter alert system goes into effect Sept. 1, tweeted Tuesday night that he was working with DPS to narrow the geographic scope of such alerts.
“I believe they will be more effective that way, and result in less alert fatigue,” he wrote.
When asked whether DPS has the ability to select which locations statewide alerts are sent to, Ericka Miller, a spokeswoman with DPS, said it’s important for the public to remember that Blue Alerts are “urgent public safety warnings that are meant to warn people of possible danger.”
“DPS often works with the requesting agency to determine the appropriate coverage of the Wireless Emergency Alert message, ensuring that the public is sufficiently made aware of a dangerous situation and giving investigating agencies the best opportunity to apprehend a dangerous criminal,” Miller said.
What triggered the Blue Alert on Monday night?
Monday’s alert was requested by the Clay County Sheriff’s Office.
Clay County Sheriff Jeffrey Lyde said in several messages posted to Facebook that one of his deputies had been shot in the chest while approaching a man in a white Cadillac during a traffic stop he initiated because the driver was speeding.
Lyde said the plate on the car did not match the Cadillac, and that authorities believe both the car and plate were stolen.
Lyde said the deputy, identified by authorities as Breanton Chitwood, was approaching the driver’s side of the car when the man inside opened fire through the window. Chitwood fired several rounds back into the car, Lyde said.
Chitwood pursued the car for a while but eventually had to pull over because he was bleeding, Lyde said.
It’s unclear whether the gunman was wounded.
Around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Lyde announced in a Facebook video that the gunman, identified by authorities by Joshua Lee Green from Arlington, had been taken into custody.
Lyde said the Arlington SWAT team located Green at a hotel in Arlington around 10 a.m. and arrested him after a brief pursuit across Interstate 20. Lyde said Green is in the process of being transported back to Clay County and will be charged with assault on a peace officer.
“We had no idea who he was, and 38 hours later he’s in handcuffs,” Lyde said. “That is just a testament to the great work of Texas law enforcement when we come together to solve something.”
On Tuesday just before 8 a.m., the car Green was driving — a white four-door Cadillac with Texas license plate FXJ-1334 — was found by Wichita Falls police parked behind an office building in downtown Wichita Falls.
Images released by police showed two bullet holes in the car’s rear windshield. There also appeared to be damage to the driver’s door and rear driver’s side of the vehicle that was not visible in images previously released by authorities.
The Blue Alert was discontinued Tuesday after police found the car.
The sheriff’s office posted screenshots on Facebook of a pair of complaints it had received about the Blue Alert from Texans who said they lived hundreds of miles from Clay County, as well as a recording of a Houston man who called to say he had “no business receiving alerts for when your officers have a boo-boo.”
The post read: “I guess not everyone is as excited as we are that our deputy came out ok.”
‘We are going to get you’
In a video posted from the hospital Monday, Lyde showed Chitwood’s injury, which he said was just left of the center of his chest.
In the video, Chitwood was sitting upright and gave a small smile to the camera. Lyde said Chitwood’s protective vest stopped the bullet and that he is “going to be just fine.”
Lyde praised Chitwood’s actions Monday night.
“I think he did a hell of a job,” Lyde said. But the sheriff had a message for the man who shot his deputy.
“To the guy who did this today: You didn’t get my guy,” Lyde said. “You shot him in the vest, you didn’t get him. But we are going to get you. Bet that.”
