A statewide manhunt is underway in Texas after a police chief was shot late Thursday night.
A blue alert was issued for 33-year-old Seth Altman, who is suspected of shooting Memphis Police Chief Rex Plant, according to News 4 San Antonio. The alert remains active on the Texas Department of Public Safety website.
Altman has been described as a white man with blue eyes and red or auburn hair. He weighs 220 pounds and is 6 foot 2 inches tall. He was last seen at the 200 block of S 4th St in Memphis, Texas, at around 11 p.m. on October 3, wearing a blue T-shirt and blue jeans.
The Memphis Police Department has asked that the public not approach Altman if they see him but to call 911 or the Hall County Sheriff’s Office. He is considered to be armed and dangerous.
Newsweek reached out to the Memphis Police Department via email for comment.
On Thursday evening at around 11 p.m., the police chief, who has been with the department for around a year, and another officer went to arrest Altman for attempted burglary, News 4 San Antonio reported.
The officer went to the front door while Plant went to the back of the property. Altman came outside, allegedly pulled a gun and shot at Plant multiple times, the local news station said.
Plant was flown to a hospital in Lubbock and was in stable condition as of Friday morning.
A blue alert is used to help track down a suspect or give early warnings of threats posed for police officers, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. When a blue alert is issued, the public receives information about the suspect, facilitating tips and points of contact for specific law enforcement.
They can be used when an officer has been killed, seriously injured on duty or gone missing, when there is an imminent threat to officers, or when information is known about a suspect and shared to help apprehend them.
The alerts can be sent to a person’s phone or air television and radio stations. They can also be shown in overhead highway message signs and other secondary mechanisms, in the same way that Amber Alerts, used to find missing children, are commonly issued.
Around 37 states currently use the Blue Alert system, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
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