Temple police received a call at about 8:30 a.m. about a gunshot victim, according to Sgt. Brad Hunt of the Temple police.
The police found a man with a gunshot wound to the chest in the office at Emerald Garden Apartments at 620 W. Elm.
The victim was taken to Scott & White, where he underwent treatment, said Temple Police Chief Gary O. Smith, speaking from Beverly Arms Apartment on Thursday morning.
“He is undergoing extensive medical treatments so we’re not able to talk to him right now,” he said. “There were multiple shots fired, not at this complex but at the one behind us. We have three people detained that we’re questioning. It’s a complicated set of facts for us and we’re working through that right now.”
Witnesses told police they saw three people run from the apartment office to an apartment in the Beverly Arms Apartments complex.
Police surrounded the apartment and waited for members of the Temple Police SWAT team to arrive before making contact with the suspects.
At about 10:10 a.m. police began talking to the suspects through the public address system of the department’s armored vehicle.
Hunt said two adults and one juvenile came out without a struggle.
He said officials are trying to ascertain if one or more of the three lived in the apartment where they took shelter.
“We hailed them out of an apartment, all three of them were in the bottom floor apartment. They came out of the apartment, willingly out of the front door.”
One man, however, could be seen with police officers on the second floor balcony of Beverly Arms.
Smith said police believe the three men detained at the scene are Temple residents.
Temple High School, Jefferson Elementary, Lamar Middle School and Holy Trinity Catholic High School were put in soft lockdown during the incident when they were notified by the Temple Police Department, said Regina Baird, spokeswoman for the Temple ISD.
The high school was taken out of lockdown around 9:50 a.m., and the other two public schools about a half-hour later, she said.
jgibbs@temple-telegram.com
