When a gun battle between police and a man armed with an assault rifle broke out on a street close to the Texas A&M campus on Monday, most nearby residents took cover. Rigo Cisneros reached for his smartphone.
As bullets whizzed and officers fell with gunshot wounds, Mr. Cisneros, an Army medic with one tour of duty in Afghanistan, crept from his home across the street toward the firefight, snapping pictures and taking video.
And then, when the shoot ing stopped and the police moved in on the home of the gunman, Mr. Cisneros, 40, called out to the officers:
“You got an ambulance here yet?†he asked. “I'm a medic.â€
He asked for permission to approach and assist, and received it. It was an opportunity to put his military training to use in the war zone that briefly erupted on his own block.
He first attended to Brian Bachmann, 41, a Brazos County constable. Mr. Bachmann was gravely wounded with a gunshot to the chest.
“I heard gurgling sounds,†Mr. Cisneros said when reached by telephone later. “He was on the ground for 10 minutes, and there was no motion at all.â€
Mr. Cisneros said he could feel no pulse. He performed CPR.
When medics arrived, Mr. Cisneros turned his attention to the shooter, whom police identified as Thomas Caffall, 35. He had been shot multiple times and was handcuffed, pale and bleeding on his front lawn. But he was conscious and aware enough to compre hend what he had done.
“Could you please tell the person I shot I'm sorry,†Mr. Cisneros said Mr. Caffall had told him.
Mr. Caffall later succumbed to his wounds, as did Mr. Bachmann, the constable. A passerby, Chris Northcliff, 43, also died of his gunshot wounds, the police said. Three other police officers and a 55-year-old woman were injured.
According to local news agencies, Mr. Bachmann became constable in January 2011 after winning an election the previous November. In Texas, constables are elected officials who serve as bailiffs in the local Justice of the Peace Court system. They also perform duties similar to those of sheriff's deputies and police officers.
The Eagle, a local newspaper, said in a November 2010 article about the election that Mr. Bachmann was married with two children. Before becoming constable, he served 17 years with the Brazos County Sheriff's Office, joining it as a patrol officer, the paper said.
Police said th at Mr. Bachmann and other police officers had gone to the residence on Monday with an eviction notice, but provided few other details about the shooting or Mr. Caffall.
When reached by telephone on Monday, several of Mr. Caffall's relatives declined to comment. A local NBC affiliate reported that Mr. Caffall's stepfather, Richard Weaver, when reached by telephone, had described him as “crazy as hell.â€
“At one point, we were afraid that he was going to come up here and do something to his mother and me,†he was quoted as saying, adding that Mr. Caffall had quit his job nine months ago.
On his Facebook page, Mr. Caffall described himself as divorced and Christian.
“I am pulling a cross between Forrest Gump and Jack Kerouac (without the drugs),†he wrote. “I'm on the road, permanently.â€
He had photos of several weapons on the page, including an assault rifle pictured in its box with two banana-shaped ammunition clips and an instruct ion manual for a Czech-made SA Vz.58 rifle that he wrote had cost $799. Also pictured was what he described as a Mosin Nagant rifle, a weapon once made in the Soviet Union, complete with bayonet and two boxes of ammunition.
“I'll be at the gun range as much as I can,†he said in the caption to one photo.
He also included a photo of his dog, Lucy.
