The encounter near U.S. 287 and East Maddox Avenue closed traffic for hours and drew witness accounts as investigators began reviewing the officer’s actions.
FORT WORTH, Texas — A Fort Worth police officer shot and killed a man Thursday afternoon on an overpass above U.S. 287 after authorities said the man moved toward the officer holding broken glass, an encounter that shut down the highway and triggered a department investigation.
The shooting quickly became a major public safety and accountability case in Fort Worth because it unfolded on a busy highway overpass, involved a person in visible distress and ended with a fatal use of force in daylight as traffic backed up below. Police Chief Eddie Garcia said the officer had stopped after seeing the man leaning over the bridge with an object in his hand. The man’s identity had not been released Thursday night, and investigators were still working to piece together the moments before the shooting, including witness statements, physical evidence and any available video.
Garcia said the chain of events began at about 4:03 p.m. when a Central Division officer traveling north on U.S. 287 near East Maddox Avenue saw a man on the overpass leaning over the bridge. According to the chief, the man had an object in his hand, and the officer went up the embankment and approached him. Garcia said the officer gave verbal commands for the man to get off the bridge, but the man instead began cutting his own neck with what appeared to be a broken bottle. Multiple callers had already reported a man on the bridge with glass in his hand, police said. Garcia said the man then ran toward the officer while still armed with the sharp object, and the officer fired. Paramedics were called, and the man was pronounced dead at 4:28 p.m. The officer was not injured.
Police have not publicly identified the man or said how many shots were fired. They also had not said Thursday whether body camera footage captured the full encounter or whether any surveillance or traffic camera video would be part of the review. Garcia said first aid was rendered after the shooting until medics arrived, but he did not provide more detail at the initial briefing about the extent of the man’s injuries before he was shot. Witness Teodulo Serna, who was working nearby, described seeing the man move directly toward the officer. “I just saw him go straight to the officer and the officer just pointed and shot him,” Serna said in a television interview. Serna added that watching the man fall was upsetting. Investigators were still collecting evidence at the bridge and the roadway below as the scene remained blocked off into the evening.
The location added urgency to the response because the shooting happened above one of the area’s major roadways, forcing the closure of lanes on the highway and the road beneath the overpass. Police said all lanes in the area were shut down in every direction during the investigation, creating delays for drivers during the late afternoon and early evening commute. The lanes reopened at about 7:29 p.m., more than three hours after the first police account placed the officer at the scene. The setting also shaped how the case was first understood. Garcia said the officer initially believed the man might be attempting to jump from the bridge, which helps explain why the officer stopped and approached before the encounter turned violent. That detail places the shooting at the intersection of emergency response, mental distress and police use-of-force review, even as investigators caution that major facts still need to be verified through evidence.
As with other officer-involved shootings in Fort Worth, the case is expected to move through the department’s established investigative process. That usually includes securing the weapon used, separating involved officers, documenting witness accounts and reviewing video, dispatch records and forensic evidence. Garcia said Thursday that the investigation was ongoing and that police would provide more information after collecting additional evidence. Authorities had not announced any criminal charge because the person shot was killed at the scene, and there was no indication Thursday that any officer had been charged. The next public milestones are likely to include formal identification of the dead man by authorities, a fuller briefing from police and possible release timelines for body camera footage if it exists and can legally be disclosed. Exact dates for those steps had not been announced Thursday night.
Hours after the shooting, the overpass and the roadway below still carried the marks of an abrupt, violent stop. Police vehicles, evidence markers and blocked traffic lanes turned a routine commuter corridor into an active crime scene. The human details remained unsettled. A man seen by callers as injured and in crisis was dead within minutes of police contact. An officer who appears to have stopped first to intervene was pulled into a fatal confrontation instead. Serna’s account captured the shock felt by people nearby. “I feel sad because you see a person just fall down, like nothing,” he said. By late Thursday, officials were asking the public to wait for more confirmed facts as investigators sorted through what happened on the bridge, what was visible to the officer, and whether any additional witnesses or recordings might clarify the final seconds.
The case remained under investigation Thursday night, with the man’s identity still unknown publicly and police expected to release more details after reviewing evidence from the Highway 287 overpass scene.
Author note: Last updated March 13, 2026.