Texas Police Officer’s Cause of Death Revealed After Initial Reports Said He Was Shot

Stock photo of a police car. Shutterstock

A Texas police officer’s cause of death was revealed by officials after reports claimed he was shot to death.

Sgt. Keith Shepherd, of the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office, was found dead in his police vehicle in a Fort Worth parking lot at around 9 p.m. on June 14, ABC News reported.

Police said at the time that he was shot to death, and added that witnesses claimed it was a shooting.

However, investigators determined that he suffered a medical emergency and hit his head when he fell to the ground. Shepherd was apparently able to get up and get inside his car before he died, the report said.

A medical examiner said that the cause of his death was pulmonary embolism, or a blood clot in his lungs.

“What I know about Keith is that he had a great reputation at the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office,” Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn said at a press conference the next day. “He was a strong leader. He was loved. He was a great husband and a good father.”

Waybourn said that due to the blood outside and inside his vehicle, it was initially believed that he was shot.

Shepherd went out to eat on June 14 and didn’t come back, he said.

“He was found in his vehicle with blood outside the vehicle and blood inside the vehicle,” Waybourn said. “And nobody knows what happened there. And the officers that found him immediately began to do emergency medical procedures on him.”

Shepherd is survived by his wife and two daughters, according to the sheriff’s office, reported CBS Dallas Fort-Worth.

“This man had an impact on Tarrant County. He had a noble impact, and his legacy is great. And we will be celebrating that for the next few days,” Waybourn said, according to NBC Dallas Fort-Worth.