FORT WORTH -- A 55-year-old man who police suspect tried to run down a Fort Worth officer last month, prompting the officer and a concerned citizen to open fire at the car, is now in jail, police officials confirmed Tuesday. Fugitive officers who arrested William "Louie" Melear on Thursday morning discovered that he had apparently been wounded in both legs during the May 27 shooting - injuries that he had been treating himself. "He simply bandaged his wounds and still had a slug in one leg," said Sgt. Pedro Criado, a police spokesman. Police had issued an arrest warrant for Melear on accusations of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer shortly after the May incident. He is accused trying to run down a police officer with a Mercedes in an alley of the Stockyards. The officer had been flagged down by a local businessman about 3 a.m., reporting a suspicious vehicle in an alley in the 2400 block of North Main Street. Around that same time, a caller to 911 reported that two men were "smoking drugs" in a Mercedes behind a bar on North Main, police have said. The officer, unaware of the 911 call, had gone to investigate the businessman's report when the driver of the Mercedes suddenly accelerated toward him, police have said. The officer was able to dodge the car and fired several shots at the fleeing Mercedes. A citizen who heard the gunfire and believed the officer had been shot and killed, retrieved his own gun and also shot multiple times at the Mercedes as it passed him on West Exchange, police have said. A passenger in the Mercedes was wounded in the shooting and dropped off at a convenience store near Yucca Avenue and Interstate 35. Criado said that man, who faces no charges in the incident, was hospitalized and later released. Criado said officers located Melear Thursday morning after receiving a tip that he was at a friend's home. He said it remained unclear Tuesday whether it was the officer's firing, that of the concerned citizen, or both that wounded Melear and the car's passenger. "We cannot conclude who was wounded by whom at this point," Criado said. "It will take forensics to make a determination." Criado said the concerned citizen did not have a concealed handgun license but "we don't see any reason to charge the citizen who fired at the suspects believing they had killed the officer."
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