Irving standoff ends with suicide, Ted Cruz attacks Beto O'Rourke on Botham Jean reaction: Your Monday evening roundup

September 17,  2018 By Wayne Carter and Tommy Cummings Good evening! Here is a look at the top headlines of the day. 🔎 Prefer the online view? It's [here](. Irving SWAT team member Ryan Turner packs up his gear following a standoff with a man who took hostages and barricaded himself in a home Monday morning on San Marcos Drive. (Tom Fox/Staff Photographer) Irving standoff Man kills himself after taking hostages at estranged spouse's home A 60-year-old man [killed himself after taking hostages in an Irving home Monday morning](, police say. Irving police received a call about a domestic disturbance and shots fired around 9 a.m. in the 300 block of San Marcos Drive, near Las Colinas Boulevard and the Bush Turnpike, spokesman James McLellan said. Three people ran from the house when police arrived, McLellan said. A SWAT team surrounded the home, and eventually two more hostages were rescued — leaving just the gunman inside — he said. The 60-year-old man, whom police have not publicly identified, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, McLellan said. Murder confession: A U.S. Border Patrol agent confessed to a murder spree [after a fifth kidnapping victim escaped](, according to an arrest-warrant affidavit. No suspect: Police are looking for information about the killing of a woman [whose body was found in a northwest Dallas field.]( politics Ted Cruz sees 'blame the police officer' reflex from Beto O'Rourke after Botham Jean killing Sen. Ted Cruz has lashed out at his Democratic challenger, Rep. Beto O'Rourke, [for agreeing that the Dallas police officer who shot an unarmed black man in his own apartment should be fired.]( "I wish Beto O'Rourke and Democrats weren't so quick to always blame the police officer," Cruz said this weekend in an interview with KRIV-TV (Channel 26) in Houston. Cruz said Botham Jean's killing is a "tragic situation where everyone is horrified by what happened." But he cautioned against jumping to conclusions, saying that the shooting may have been a "horrifying and horrific misunderstanding or it may be something else." His comments came after O'Rourke focused on the killing at a rally Friday at the Good Street Baptist Church in Dallas. Ramping up: Dallas Democrat Colin Allred has unveiled [his first television ad against incumbent GOP Rep. Pete Sessions.]( Opinion: How booming U.S. oil production [dealt Trump a hole card in foreign policy.]( D-FW REAL ESTATE Housing slowdown worse than thought with declines in Allen, Coppell, Plano Sales of preowned single-family homes dropped 1 percent annually in August in all of North Texas, [according to the latest numbers from the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.]( Those numbers include data on more than two dozen counties stretching from the Red River to Waco. When you drill down in the numbers to just the immediate D-FW area, August's dip in home purchase activity was much larger. In the Dallas area, sales of preowned homes by real estate agents fell by about 4 percent in August from a year earlier. Real estate [agents say the overall numbers understate the housing sector cooldown.]( Strategy adjustment: Dallas wants to sell off seized property to commercial developers. [Here’s how that could impact neighborhoods.]( Energy: How much has Texas dropped its reliance on coal? [You'd be surprised.]( (Tom Fox/Staff Photographer) Photo of the Day A penny serves to illustrate the tiny size of two newly hatched Texas horned lizards at the Fort Worth Zoo's Texas Native Reptile Center. Call them horny toads, horned frogs, Phrynosoma cornutum or the Texas horned lizard, the state reptile is in dire straits. For several decades, they’ve been vanishing for reasons researchers cannot fully explain. Now, Texas zoos, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials, Texas Christian University biologists and more [are working together to release hundreds of horned lizard hatchlings]( on state land about 100 miles west of Austin. editors' picks - Weather changes: Did you think Dallas-Fort Worth was done with the heat? [Think again.]( - Playground death: An 8-year-old boy found unconscious on a [playground in The Colony on Saturday later died, authorities say](. - Good Samaritans: Bystanders [pulled the victim of a single-vehicle rollover crash from the wreckage](, Fort Worth police say. - Sting operation: An investigation of online child sexual exploitation led to [12 arrests throughout North Texas in the past three weeks.]( - Public health alert: Additional cases of the mumps [have been confirmed]([at TCU](, Tarrant County officials said Monday. - Fighting cancer: UT Southwestern has been awarded $37 million to fund research, [including a database of rare childhood cases.]( - Monkey shines: Owning a monkey is illegal now, but here are five stories of the days [when you could have one in Dallas](. Finally .... Dog catcher’s death should remind all of us what good government really is From Metro columnist Sharon Grigsby: How many of us give a thought to the anonymous folks who make up those byzantine city departments, except when we want to complain or criticize? These workers make our cities run, they rarely make headlines for a job well done. [But one of those employees has been on my heart the last 10 days or so.]( Allen Maxwell Davis, a field officer supervisor at Dallas Animal Services, let me tag along with him Sept. 4 for a column I was writing about unleashed dogs in city parks. Riding shotgun that afternoon, I peppered him with questions, all of which he patiently answered — with a big helping of good humor. Davis’ passion for helping the city’s animal population — and its humans as well — was so contagious that I was tempted to take him up on the offer to stay through the end of the shift. But I had been out in the sun for three hours, and I had a column to write. Three days after that interview, Allen Davis, known to friends and family as Max, died at his home. He was only 30 years old. [Read Sharon Grigsby's full column.]( [Subscribe to our Real Estate newsletter]( 👋 That's all for this evening! For up-to-the-minute news and analysis, check out [DallasNews.com](. Share the love! If you like this newsletter, please [check out our other newsletters here](. Do you have feedback? Send your thoughts, questions, praise and corrections to [newsletter-feedback@dallasnews.com](mailto:newsletter-feedback@dallasnews.com?subject=Evening%20Roundup%20Feedback).[Dennis Jansen](mailto:djansen@dallasnews.com?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback) STAY CONNECTED WITH US  [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Twitter]( [LinkedIn]( [Tumblr]( [Google]( [Reddit](  [OTHER NEWSLETTERS]( [SUBSCRIPTION OPTIONS]( [Unsubscribe](  |  [Manage Preferences](  |  [Privacy Policy](  |  [Contact](  |  [Advertise]( You received this message because you signed up for this Dallas Morning News newsletter or it was forwarded to you. Copyright 2018 - [The Dallas Morning News]( | [1954 Commerce St., Dallas, TX 75201](#)