{"id":430921,"date":"2026-09-09T19:40:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T19:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/430921\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T19:40:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T19:40:44","slug":"garland-police-fatally-shoot-machete-wielding-man-after-standoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/430921\/","title":{"rendered":"Garland Police Fatally Shoot Machete-Wielding Man After Standoff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Garland police fatally shot 37-year-old Michael Antonio Santacruz early Monday after he advanced toward officers while swinging a machete, the department said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GarlandPoliceDepartment\/posts\/update-officer-involved-shooting-deceased-identifiedthe-deceased-individual-has-\/1421045740121163\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Monday update<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Officers first responded at about 2:15 a.m. to the 3000 block of Broadway Boulevard after a caller reported seeing a man walking near a 24-hour gas station with a machete. Officers searched the area but did not find him.<\/p>\n<p>Police received a second call at about 3:20 a.m. reporting that a man matching the earlier description was armed with a machete at a bus stop near Broadway Boulevard and Colonel Drive. Responding officers found Santacruz holding the weapon.<\/p>\n<p>Police say Santacruz charged officers<\/p>\n<p>Officers spent up to 25 minutes trying to negotiate with Santacruz and de-escalate the encounter, Garland Police Public Information Officer Matt Pesta said during a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox4news.com\/news\/1-dead-following-officer-involved-shooting-garland\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">media briefing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Santacruz refused repeated commands to drop the machete and began advancing aggressively toward the officers, police said.<\/p>\n<p>Officers backed away while continuing to order him to drop the weapon. They deployed a department-issued less-lethal electrical control device, but police said it did not stop him.<\/p>\n<p>Santacruz continued closing the distance while swinging the machete, prompting multiple officers to fire, police said.<\/p>\n<p>Officers immediately rendered aid after the shooting. Garland Fire Department paramedics, who had staged nearby, transported Santacruz to a local hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.<\/p>\n<p>No officers or other members of the public suffered injuries, according to police.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators temporarily closed both northbound and southbound lanes of Broadway Boulevard at Colonel Drive while they processed the scene Monday morning.<\/p>\n<p>Three investigations underway<\/p>\n<p>The Garland Police Department\u2019s Criminal Investigations Division is investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting.<\/p>\n<p>The department\u2019s Professional Standards Unit and the Dallas County District Attorney\u2019s Office Public Integrity Division are conducting separate reviews.<\/p>\n<p>The department placed the officers involved on administrative leave under department policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Garland police fatally shot 37-year-old Michael Antonio Santacruz early Monday after he advanced toward officers while swinging a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[87249,101541,149775,5225,160,162,161,104243],"class_list":["post-430921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-garland-police-department","tag-machete","tag-michael-antonio-santacruz","tag-officer-involved-shooting","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news","tag-police-standoff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}