Standoff ends with El Paso SWAT fatally shooting woman with gun at Health & Human Services building

A standoff Wednesday between the El Paso police SWAT team and a woman with a gun barricaded inside the state Health and Human Services Center ended with police fatally shooting the woman.

An ABC-7 crew observed an ambulance leaving the scene taking the woman to University Medical Center shortly before police confirmed the incident at 5150 El Paso Drive had ended about 3:30 p.m.

EPPD Sgt. Kiki Carrillo said the woman, who was holed up inside an office in the building, was shot when she came out of the office and pointed her gun at SWAT officers. (Watch Carillo’s briefing to the media on the end of the standoff in the video player below.)

He described her injuries as life-threatening; the woman’s husband later told ABC-7 that she had died at the hospital.

The Texas HHS facility is a service center for social service benefits such as welfare, Medicaid and food stamps. Carrillo said the woman was upset about having benefits cut off or suspended.

He indicated the standoff began after the woman entered the building about 10:30 a.m., displayed the gun while confronting a security guard and made demands to employees about her benefits, before barricading herself in an office.

Police were able to safely evacuated the building as the standoff ensued.

Carillo said crisis management commanders and police negotiators had “off and on communication” with the woman prior to the shooting occurring.