On July 8, 2022, Houston PD Officer Garrett Hardin shot and killed 47-year-old Roderick Brooks for alleged shoplifting some detergent from a Dollar General store and running away on foot. HPD Officer Hardin tased him, jumped on his back, beat him and finally shot and killed the unarmed man, claiming that he had been “reaching for the taser.”
The family waited for justice. And waited. And waited. The one-year anniversary of his death came and left and nothing was done about the officer who had executed the unarmed man with a close-range deliberate shot to the back of the neck.
Shoplifting items under $100 in value is a Class C theft in Texas which is generally treated with a citation, fine and some court appearances. Roderick Brooks was executed in cold blood by an officer who took it upon himself to choose excessive force as he had done many times in his career, culminating in the death of a man whom he should have given a ticket at most.
MANY YEARS OF MISCONDUCT
The family hired a lawyer who investigated and found out that Hardin had been reported for another event of police brutality where he tased an intoxicated man who upon taser jolt fell off an overpass and suffered critical injuries. Deputies are trained not to use a taser on unstable surfaces or when a person is at a height where they might fall to prevent this predictable outcome but Hardin had ignored his training.
Nothing had been done about this incident of the severely injured man on the overpass whose race is unknown. For a year, nothing was done about the death of Roderick Brooks.
Numerous other misconduct events are on Hardin’s record that resulted in eight serious suspensions without pay on previous occasions for incidents such as crashing his patrol car into another vehicle that had been his fault, lying to his supervisors and sexually harassing officers of a lesser rank than him.
A profile of Hardin as a dangerous officer who for many years has been getting away with risky and abusive behaviors is visible throughout his policing career. Had his supervisors realized this and at any time during his many suspensions without pay removed him from situations of having power over the general population, Roderick Brooks would be alive today.
Houston PD’s former Officer Hardin has been charged with first-degree felony murder in the death of Roderick Brooks on October 26, 2023. It took more than one year for the wheels of justice to begin turning. The fact that the bond was set at a paltry $10,000 for a first degree murder is already the first discouraging sign that perhaps the trial may be as symbolic as the long wait and minimal bond.
IncarcerNation.com will follow this trial and update the story as it evolves in this space.
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