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On 11/03/2021, McAllen Police officers responded to a disturbance reported at a restaurant on South 10th Street where employees said Garza was arguing inside. Officers confronted him outside and chased him on foot through the parking area. He fell during the encounter, and officers struck him with batons, placed him in handcuffs, and restrained him on the ground using body weight. Garza lost consciousness while officers held him and later died after transport from the scene. His family filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging the beating and restraint caused fatal injuries. The case remained under review and subject to civil litigation regarding police actions during the detention.

https://myrgv.com/featured/2021/11/04/man-who-died-amid-arrest-at-mcallen-whataburger-identified/
https://myrgv.com/local-news/2023/11/27/mother-of-man-killed-while-in-mcallen-police-custody-sues-for-wrongful-death/

Police said that Kody Marshall, who had been involved in a prior shooting, was then involved in a major accident on the Crosstown Expressway. Police said he immediately fled the accident. Police later found him near a high school, and he reportedly fired at officers. Police returned fire, killing Marshall.

https://www.kristv.com/news/local-news/ccpd-responding-to-shooting-call-near-moody-high-school-school-on-lockdown 

On 10/27/2021, Austin police accompanied city code-enforcement personnel to Robert Bruce Richart's home at 10610 Pinkney Lane to execute a nuisance-abatement warrant concerning an overgrown yard. After attempts to contact Richart were unsuccessful, city personnel began cutting the grass.
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At approximately 10:21 a.m., police said Richart fired from inside the house toward city personnel and police. Workers were evacuated and APD SWAT, crisis negotiators and mental-health personnel responded. The barricade continued for several hours.
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At approximately 3:19 p.m., police said Richart fired repeatedly toward SWAT officers positioned behind the residence. Police sent a robot through the front door and its camera showed a rapidly spreading fire inside the house. Officers continued ordering Richart to leave as the residence became engulfed in flames.
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At approximately 3:39 p.m., Richart emerged through the garage carrying a rifle and handgun. SWAT Officer Eric Strnad fired six times, striking Richart. Officers moved Richart away from the burning residence and provided medical aid. Richart died from the gunshot injuries.
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A Travis County grand jury subsequently reviewed Strnad's use of deadly force and returned no indictment. The available reporting does not establish the cause of the house fire.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
Eric Strnad was an Austin Police Department SWAT officer with approximately eight years and seven months of service at the time of the shooting. A Travis County grand jury later declined to indict him.
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https://www.fox7austin.com/news/police-identify-man-shot-and-killed-following-swat-situation-fire
https://www.fox7austin.com/news/travis-county-grand-jury-clears-austin-police-officer-in-use-of-force-case
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/10/29/austin-man-shot-killed-by-police-after-citys-attempt-to-cut-his-grass-turns-to-standoff-house-fire-fatal-shooting/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/10/29/overgrown-lawn-police-shooting/

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REASON WHY PURSUIT WAS INITIATED:
At approximately 10:40 p.m. on 10/25/2021, a trucking company in the 14700 block of Sommermeyer Street reported that an 18-wheeler flatbed had been stolen. The company tracked the truck by GPS. At approximately 12:20 a.m., Houston Police located the stolen truck near Breen Road and State Highway 249 and attempted a traffic stop. The driver continued driving away and police initiated a pursuit.
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OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY:
On 10/26/2021, Houston Police pursued the stolen 18-wheeler through northwest Harris County after locating it using the trucking company's GPS. Police described the pursuit as brief. The truck traveled along Lincoln Drive toward McKinley Street while officers followed with emergency equipment activated.
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As the 18-wheeler approached the T-intersection at Lincoln Drive and McKinley Street, police alleged the driver disregarded a stop sign and jumped from the cab while the truck was still moving. He landed in a drainage ditch while the driverless tractor-trailer continued forward, crashed through a metal barrier and plowed into a mobile home in the 11500 block of McKinley Street. Surveillance video captured the truck crashing into the residence.
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Aylene “Nicole” Heaney and her partner, 54-year-old Jeff Conyers, were asleep in their bedroom when the 18-wheeler tore into the home and trapped them beneath the wreckage. Heaney was found dead at the scene. Conyers was pinned beneath the truck's fuel tank for more than an hour while firefighters stabilized the severely damaged home before they could safely extricate him.
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Conyers survived with extensive injuries, including three broken ribs, a broken arm, a crushed shoulder, five broken fingers, destroyed muscle tissue and facial burns. The collision also destroyed the couple's home, vehicle and possessions. His brother, Chris Conyers, said Jeff had lost “the love of his life” along with virtually everything he owned.
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Four adults were inside the home when the truck struck it. Heaney and Conyers were in the bedroom directly in the truck's path. Two housemates were sleeping on the opposite side of the residence and escaped the destruction.
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TOTAL FATALITIES/INJURIES:
1 Fatality, 1 Serious Injury.
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EYEWITNESS OR FAMILY STATEMENTS:
Chris Conyers described the crash as devastating his brother's entire life at once: Jeff survived with serious injuries but lost Nicole, his home, his vehicle and virtually all of his belongings. The family established a fundraiser because Jeff faced extensive medical recovery and was unable to work following the crash.
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DISPOSITION:
Police arrested the fleeing driver immediately after he jumped from the moving truck. Harris County prosecutors charged him with felony murder in Heaney's death and reckless aggravated assault for the injuries to Conyers.
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No Houston Police officer was criminally charged for the officer's role in initiating or continuing the pursuit.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
Houston Police did not publicly identify the officer or officers who initiated and participated in the pursuit.

https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/10/26/woman-killed-after-18-wheeler-hits-home-during-chase-in-north-harris-county-deputies-say/
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/crime/article/Authorities-pursue-felony-murder-charge-in-16564419.php
https://abc13.com/post/woman-killed-18-wheeler-crash-stolen-semi-northwest-harris-county/11168855/
https://www.fox26houston.com/news/woman-dead-man-injured-after-18-wheeler-crashes-into-harris-co-home
https://cdllife.com/2021/truck-thief-who-smashed-through-mobile-home-facing-murder-charges/
https://www.newser.com/story/312682/stolen-driverless-big-rig-slams-into-home-kills-woman.html

Dispatch received a call about a disturbance. When deputies arrived, they found Gregory Gene Goodall armed with two knives. He allegedly failed to comply with deputies' commands to drop the knives and continued moving toward the deputies. One deputy shot and killed him.

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/crime/article255204676.html?utm_
https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/sanger-man-killed-shooting-denton-county-deputies/?utm_

Around 2:30 p.m., dispatch received a call from a passerby who said an SUV was stopped in the middle of the road, and the driver appeared to be slumped over the wheel. Two Arlington officers responded to the call. One of the officers tried to talk to the driver and told him to stay where he was. The driver fled. The driver stopped briefly, at which point one of the officers told him he was under arrest and that he should shut off his vehicle. The driver again fled. The officers again pursued. The driver drove to a cul-de-sac and made a U-turn and allegedly began driving in the direction of one of the officers, who had stopped, exited his vehicle, and was standing near his open door. As the vehicle moved towards him, the officer shot and killed him. Officer Robert Phillips was fired from the agency two days later for violations of policy.

https://www.wbap.com/2021/10/20/arlington-police-investigate-officer-involved-shooting/
 

About 4 a.m., officers responded to a report of shots fired. Officers arrived at the location and began to canvass the vicinity for a maroon sport utility vehicle firing a weapon. An officer spotted a maroon Lincoln SUV with paper plates and conducted a traffic stop along with assisting officers. Guillermo Gonzalez-Gonzalez was the lone occupant. The officers shot and killed Gonzalez. Gonzalez reportedly had two guns with him at the time of the incident: a semiautomatic handgun and a long rifle.

https://www.lmtonline.com/news/article/Man-ID-d-in-fatal-officer-related-shooting-16543924.php

At approximately noon, officers were dispatched to an apartment complex for a family disturbance involving a gun. A caller reported seeing a man with a gun, shooting into the air and pointing the gun at a woman. The woman involved also called police and reported that Christopher Ryan Vasquez was trying to kill her. Officers arrived and Vasquez barricaded himself in his apartment. He occasionally approached the window and cursed at officers while holding one and sometimes two handguns. He also pointed the guns at his own head and at one point placed one in his mouth. He reportedly said he was not going to come out peacefully, threatened suicide, and stated he was going to kill himself. At approximately 6:41 p.m., officers sent gas into the apartment, and Vasquez fired his handgun toward an armored vehicle, and an officer fired one round at him. He fell away from the window and out of sight. Shortly after, additional gunfire could be heard from inside the apartment. A robot camera revealed Vasquez lying dead on the floor of the apartment with a gun nearby.

https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Man-who-killed-self-in-Medical-Center-area-16603887.php

Officers pursued a man reportedly wanted for several felony offenses through multiple counties before he fatally shot himself in the head. Police said the man in his 20s was found in his vehicle with a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the end of the chase around 10 p.m.

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/10/12/1-dead-in-pursuit-of-robbery-suspect-san-antonio-police-say/

On 10/10/2021, Harris County sheriff’s deputies encountered Kenneth Anderson at the scene of a vehicle crash in Houston, Texas. Deputies believed Anderson was experiencing a drug related medical crisis and placed him into custody. While detained, deputies reported that Anderson became uncooperative and deployed a Taser multiple times. Deputies restrained him and placed him in a patrol vehicle. Emergency medical personnel responded and found Anderson unresponsive but did not transport him to a hospital. Deputies then drove Anderson to the county booking center, where he remained unresponsive. He was transported to a hospital and later died. The incident prompted internal and civil review. A federal civil rights lawsuit was later dismissed after a court granted qualified immunity to the involved deputy.

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/02/17/kenneth-anderson-houston-taser-death-lawsuit/
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/crime/article/kenneth-anderson-harris-county-jail-death-17790455.php
https://www.propublica.org/article/harris-county-taser-death-kenneth-anderson

Officers were responding to a DWI call a block away when they heard gunshots in the entertainment district at around 1 a.m. The officers arrived to find two groups of men shooting at one another. An officer began firing at the men. Michael "Mikey" Carothers was killed. It was not immediately known whether the teen was killed by officer-fired bullets or from the other group involved in the shooting.

https://austonia.com/sixth-street-officer-shooting 

On 10/06/2021, Hidalgo County sheriff’s deputies responded to reports of a domestic dispute at a residence on Ruben Navarro Street in Weslaco. Police stated a woman told deputies her son had assaulted her. Deputies entered the residence and alleged they encountered Guillermo San Miguel Sanchez holding a knife. Deputies opened fire and killed him.

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/deputy-involved-shooting-weslaco-16517066.php
https://myrgv.com/featured/2021/10/08/sheriffs-office-man-shot-and-killed-by-deputies-lunged-at-them-with-a-knife/
 

On October 5, 2021, U.S. deputy marshals were serving an arrest warrant on 43-year-old Daniel Garcia in a parking lot near the Whispering Wind apartment complex in Corpus Christi, Texas. During the operation, Garcia was shot and killed. It was reported that Garcia was unarmed at the time of the shooting.

https://www.kristv.com/news/local-news/corpus-christi-woman-reacts-to-us-marshals-shooting-and-killing-her-neighbor

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REASON WHY PURSUIT WAS INITIATED:
At approximately 10:30 p.m., a Houston Police sergeant saw a white Infiniti G37 doing donuts and burnouts in a parking lot near Fairdale Lane and Fountain View Drive. The sergeant activated the patrol vehicle's emergency lights and siren and attempted a traffic stop. The driver continued driving away and police initiated a pursuit.
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OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY:
On 10/01/2021, Houston Police pursued the Infiniti from the parking lot through the surrounding residential area. The fleeing vehicle reached approximately 60 mph in a 30-mph area before reaching three Prospect Park valet workers walking back toward the restaurant after parking customers' vehicles.
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The Infiniti struck 23-year-old Nick Rodriguez and his coworkers Fnan Measho and Eric Orduna. All three died at the scene. The vehicle subsequently entered a ditch and flipped. Sixteen-year-old passenger Mohammed Alkatip was ejected and seriously injured, undergoing multiple surgeries for injuries to both legs.
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Nick had already survived a life-threatening ordeal long before the crash: he had battled leukemia as a child and survived. At 23, he was attending Sam Houston State University and pursuing a career in music therapy. His family said he wanted to use music to work with children with special needs. He was working as a valet while completing his education when he was killed.
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Nick's family remembered the bitter contrast between surviving childhood leukemia and then being killed while simply working his valet job. His relatives joined the families of Fnan and Eric in mourning the three young men, and Prospect Park held a balloon release outside the restaurant in their memory.
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DISPOSITION:
Ahmedal Tayeb Elnouman Modawi was charged with three counts of murder and aggravated assault with serious bodily injury. He later pleaded guilty in connection with the deaths of Nick, Fnan and Eric. On 06/30/2023, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
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No Houston Police officer was criminally charged for an officer's role in initiating or continuing the pursuit.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
The Houston Police Department did not publicly identify the sergeant who initiated and participated in the fatal pursuit.

https://abc13.com/prospect-park-workers-killed-fnan-measho-eric-orduna-nick-rodriguez/11076546/
https://abc13.com/prospect-park-valet-workers-killed-sports-bar-ahmedal-tayeb-elnouman-modawi/11081879/
https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/10/02/3-valet-workers-killed-after-suspect-involved-in-pursuit-crashes-near-nightclub-in-southwest-houston/
https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/10/04/families-mourn-the-valets-killed-friday-by-a-driver-attempting-to-evade-police/
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/crime/article/valet-deaths-modawi-18178818.php

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REASON WHY PURSUIT WAS INITIATED:
At approximately 10:30 p.m., a Houston Police sergeant saw a white Infiniti G37 doing donuts and burnouts in a parking lot near Fairdale Lane and Fountain View Drive. The sergeant activated the patrol vehicle's emergency lights and siren and attempted a traffic stop. The driver continued driving away and police initiated a pursuit.
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OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY:
On 10/01/2021, Houston Police pursued the Infiniti from the parking lot into the surrounding residential streets. The fleeing vehicle reached approximately 60 mph in a 30-mph area before reaching three Prospect Park valet workers walking back toward the restaurant after parking customers' vehicles.
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The Infiniti struck Eric Orduna, Fnan Measho and Nick Rodriguez. All three young men were killed at the scene. The fleeing vehicle subsequently entered a ditch, flipped and crashed. Sixteen-year-old passenger Mohammed Alkatip was ejected and seriously injured, requiring multiple surgeries to his legs.
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Eric was born in Houston on 07/27/1999 and was the youngest of three siblings. His family remembered him as kind, loving, selfless and exceptionally devoted to his parents and siblings. He loved cars and football and was working regularly as a valet to save money for a car, but his larger ambition was to earn enough eventually to buy his parents a house.
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Eric also dreamed of studying music and possibly attending Rice University. His family described him as unusually responsible for his age: he cared little about expensive clothes, new phones or social-media attention, rarely went out and reliably worked his Friday and Saturday shifts. On the night he died, he was doing exactly that—working his regular valet shift and walking back after parking a customer's vehicle.
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Eric's mother, Rose Orduna, publicly questioned the Houston Police pursuit after her son's death and struggled with not knowing what he experienced during his final moments. His sister Elizabeth described the lifelong grief of losing her youngest brother, while his older brother Junior joined the other families in demanding justice for all three men.
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DISPOSITION:
Ahmedal Tayeb Elnouman Modawi was charged with three counts of murder and aggravated assault with serious bodily injury. He later pleaded guilty in connection with the three deaths and was sentenced on 06/30/2023 to 10 years in prison.
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No Houston Police officer was criminally charged for an officer's role in initiating or continuing the pursuit.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
The Houston Police Department did not publicly identify the sergeant who initiated and participated in the fatal pursuit.

https://abc13.com/prospect-park-workers-killed-fnan-measho-eric-orduna-nick-rodriguez/11076546/
https://abc13.com/prospect-park-valet-workers-killed-sports-bar-ahmedal-tayeb-elnouman-modawi/11081879/
https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/10/04/families-mourn-the-valets-killed-friday-by-a-driver-attempting-to-evade-police/
https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/houston-tx/eric-orduna-10391367
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/crime/article/Teen-driver-charged-in-deaths-of-three-valets-16507611.php
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/crime/article/valet-deaths-modawi-18178818.php

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REASON WHY PURSUIT WAS INITIATED:
At approximately 10:30 p.m., a Houston Police sergeant saw a white Infiniti G37 doing donuts and burnouts in a parking lot near Fairdale Lane and Fountain View Drive. The sergeant activated the patrol vehicle's emergency lights and siren and attempted a traffic stop. The driver continued driving away and police initiated a pursuit.
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OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY:
On 10/01/2021, Houston Police pursued the Infiniti from the parking lot into the surrounding residential streets. The fleeing vehicle reached approximately 60 mph in an area with a 30-mph speed limit. The pursuit covered only a short distance before reaching three Prospect Park Sports Bar and Kitchen valet workers who were walking back toward the restaurant after parking customers' vehicles.
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The Infiniti struck all three workers—18-year-old Fnan Measho, 22-year-old Eric Augustine Orduna and 23-year-old Nick Rodriguez. All three died at the scene. The Infiniti then entered a ditch, flipped and crashed into a fixed object.
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Sixteen-year-old Mohammed Alkatip, a passenger in the fleeing vehicle and also a valet worker, was ejected and seriously injured. He underwent three surgeries in three days for injuries to both legs.
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Fnan had graduated from Bellaire High School only months before his death, where he competed for three years in cross-country and track. His coach Shardrick Johnson nicknamed him “Motormouth” because of his outgoing personality. Fnan was working while attending the University of Houston-Downtown, where he was studying criminology and hoped to become a police officer. He was active in his Eritrean church and helped financially support his parents and three younger siblings, with whom he shared a bedroom.
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The families of Fnan, Eric and Nick gathered for a public balloon release outside Prospect Park after their deaths. Fnan's family and Eric's family met and grieved together at the memorial.
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DISPOSITION:
Ahmedal Tayeb Elnouman Modawi was charged with three counts of murder and aggravated assault with serious bodily injury. He later pleaded guilty in connection with the deaths of all three valet workers. On 06/30/2023, a Harris County judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison.
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No Houston Police officer was criminally charged for an officer's role in initiating or continuing the pursuit.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
The Houston Police Department did not publicly identify the sergeant who initiated and participated in the fatal pursuit.

https://abc13.com/prospect-park-workers-killed-fnan-measho-eric-orduna-nick-rodriguez/11076546/
https://abc13.com/prospect-park-valet-workers-killed-sports-bar-ahmedal-tayeb-elnouman-modawi/11081879/
https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/10/02/3-valet-workers-killed-after-suspect-involved-in-pursuit-crashes-near-nightclub-in-southwest-houston/
https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/10/04/families-mourn-the-valets-killed-friday-by-a-driver-attempting-to-evade-police/
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/A-huge-loss-18-year-old-Bellaire-grad-16506496.php
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/crime/article/valet-deaths-modawi-18178818.php

On 09/30/2021, Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputy Joseph Trevino shot and killed 38-year-old Nicholas Norris near Potranco Road and Sundance Crest in far west Bexar County after deputies encountered Norris during what his family described as a mental-health crisis.
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The encounter began shortly before 8 a.m. when a deputy stopped at a convenience store near Potranco Road and Arcadia Path and a store clerk reported that Norris had been frightening customers. Sheriff Javier Salazar initially said the deputy approached Norris, who drove away in a Nissan Xterra. Deputies initially decided not to pursue him. According to later reporting, deputies subsequently saw Norris driving erratically and in circles near Potranco Road and Sundance Crest during morning rush hour and reengaged him.
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A custodial-death report subsequently filed with the Texas Attorney General provided a somewhat different description of the reason deputies were trying to detain Norris. That report said deputies were attempting to issue Norris a criminal-trespass warning. This is a significant distinction from the sheriff’s initial public description, which emphasized reports that Norris was frightening customers.
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According to Salazar’s initial account, deputies caught up with Norris and attempted to take him into custody. Salazar alleged that Norris struggled with deputies and that at some point Trevino was dragged by Norris’ vehicle. Salazar said investigators had obtained witness video showing the deputy being dragged. Trevino fired one shot into the vehicle, striking Norris in the upper body. Norris was eventually removed from the vehicle and transported for medical treatment but died en route to the hospital.
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However, the custodial-death report submitted afterward to the Texas Attorney General did not mention Trevino being dragged by Norris’ vehicle — one of the central facts Salazar had publicly cited when explaining the fatal shooting. The report also did not contain several other details from the sheriff’s original description. The discrepancy was substantial enough to prompt later news coverage questioning whether the official written account supported portions of Salazar’s initial narrative.
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Norris’ family strongly challenged the framing of the encounter. His father, Thomas Norris, said his son “did not deserve to die,” while attorneys for the family said Norris was experiencing an emotional and mental-health crisis following the death of his mother from COVID-19 and needed medical intervention rather than deadly force. Attorney Nicolette Ward said the family’s legal team was investigating all available legal options and demanded complete transparency from Bexar County regarding the shooting. Publicly available reporting located through 2026 documents the threatened legal action but does not establish that the family ultimately filed a civil lawsuit.
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The circumstances were particularly notable because Bexar County authorities already knew Norris had serious mental-health needs. Salazar acknowledged that the county’s Specialized Multidisciplinary Alternate Response Team, or SMART, had previously encountered Norris and transported him for mental-health treatment, and San Antonio police had also previously taken him for treatment. Salazar publicly questioned why Norris was again outside a treatment setting, effectively acknowledging that law enforcement and the behavioral-health system were already familiar with his condition before the fatal encounter.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
Joseph Trevino was publicly identified by BCSO nearly two weeks after the shooting as the deputy who fired the fatal shot. The later custodial-death report is important to evaluating Trevino’s shooting because it omitted the allegation that Trevino had been dragged by Norris’ SUV, despite Salazar having repeatedly presented that alleged dragging as an important part of the circumstances surrounding Trevino’s use of deadly force.
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The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office itself had significant use-of-force and accountability issues surrounding this period. In 2017, BCSO deputies fired more than 18 rounds while attempting to shoot another man, killing six-year-old bystander Kameron Prescott inside his home; Bexar County later agreed to pay Prescott’s family $4.5 million to settle the resulting civil claim. In another BCSO killing, Deputy Brandin Moran shot Jesus Benito Garcia in 2020 after responding to a mental-health/domestic crisis in which Garcia was reportedly on his knees holding a screwdriver to his own neck; Garcia’s family alleged that Moran arrived and shot him within seconds and later obtained a civil settlement.
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BCSO had also faced another highly contested mental-health shooting just a year before Norris was killed. Deputy John Rodriguez shot and killed Afghanistan combat veteran Damian Daniels at Daniels’ home in August 2020 after deputies had repeatedly responded to calls concerning his mental health. Daniels’ family and civil-rights attorneys disputed BCSO’s portrayal of Daniels as suicidal and publicly demanded accountability.
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Personnel problems were also substantial during the period surrounding Norris’ death. Records obtained by KSAT showed that Sheriff Salazar fired 102 deputies between 2017 and the end of 2020. During 2021 itself, numerous BCSO employees were arrested or investigated for alleged misconduct, including allegations involving domestic violence, sexual misconduct, falsification of jail records and other offenses. A BCSO firearms instructor was accused by multiple female cadets of inappropriate conduct, including allegations that he groped a cadet and used his authority over her training, while another BCSO lieutenant was investigated over alleged misconduct involving an inmate and her activities surrounding the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack.
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The Norris case therefore developed against an existing record of disputed BCSO fatal-force incidents, mental-health encounters ending in police gunfire, civil litigation over shootings, and substantial internal employee misconduct. Of particular importance in Norris’ individual case is that the agency’s own later state-filed custodial-death report did not reproduce a central element of the sheriff’s original justification narrative — the allegation that Trevino was dragged by Norris’ vehicle.

https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/law-enforcement/deputies-investigating-shooting-in-west-bexar-county/273-09626759-2e85-4ecf-9357-7d87b16811af
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/10/02/why-is-he-even-out-here-sheriff-says-man-shot-by-deputy-had-been-brought-in-before-for-mental-health-assistance/
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/10/06/he-did-not-deserve-to-die-father-of-man-killed-by-bcso-deputy-speaks-out/
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/10/12/nearly-two-weeks-after-fatal-encounter-bcso-identifies-deputy-who-shot-and-killed-nicholas-norris/
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/11/12/report-on-bcso-deputys-fatal-shooting-of-nicholas-norris-leaves-out-sheriffs-claims/
https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/Family-members-ID-man-shot-killed-BCSO-deputy-16502147.php
https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Deputy-identified-who-fatally-shot-man-driving-16528285.php
https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Report-of-deputy-involved-fatal-shooting-16613755.php
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2020/09/01/attorneys-for-damian-daniels-family-meet-with-bexar-county-da-demand-justice-after-bcso-deputy-shot-and-killed-him/
https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Family-of-man-shot-by-Bexar-County-deputy-sue-16978568.php/
https://www.tpr.org/criminal-justice/2022-08-09/bexar-county-settles-lawsuit-with-family-of-man-shot-to-death-by-sheriffs-deputy
https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Family-of-6-year-old-boy-shot-and-killed-by-Bexar-14877045.php/
https://www.ksat.com/news/defenders/2021/02/10/bexar-county-sheriff-javier-salazar-fired-more-than-100-deputies-during-his-first-term-very-few-were-reinstated/
https://www.ksat.com/news/defenders/2021/04/09/bcso-academy-instructor-removed-from-contact-with-public-after-groping-allegation/
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/12/20/bexar-county-law-enforcement-officer-arrests-rose-20-percent-in-2021/

On 09/27/2021, an Allen Police Department officer shot and killed 27-year-old Gloria Marie Strong in the parking lot of a Wendy’s at 601 W. McDermott Drive near U.S. Highway 75 after police responded to a disturbance involving Strong, her estranged wife and another man.
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Police were dispatched shortly before 2:30 p.m. to a reported disturbance at 301 Central Expressway South. Officers did not initially locate the disturbance and began searching the surrounding area. They subsequently encountered Strong in the nearby Wendy’s parking lot.
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The initial police narrative changed materially within approximately one day. Allen police first described the incident as a gunfight or exchange of gunfire between Strong and 24-year-old Michael Anthony Cooper and initially said investigators did not know whether Strong had been fatally struck by Cooper’s gunfire or police gunfire.
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Police subsequently withdrew that account. Allen police said Cooper had not fired his weapon and that the only people who fired guns were Strong and the Allen officer. Police said Strong had shot Cooper several times before officers arrived at the immediate location.
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Strong’s estranged wife, Jonique Strong, witnessed the confrontation and provided an account that supported significant portions of the revised police narrative. She said Gloria Strong shot Cooper, dropped the handgun she had been using and picked up Cooper’s rifle before running from the area. Jonique Strong said Cooper had armed himself because he believed Gloria Strong posed a threat but did not fire his weapon.
.
Police said responding officers saw Strong carrying the rifle at her side and heard gunshots. According to the department’s revised account, officers also observed Strong firing her weapon before she began running east while still carrying the rifle toward an area with vehicle and pedestrian traffic. An Allen officer fired at least one shot at her.
.
Police found Cooper wounded between two vehicles and Strong collapsed several feet away. Officers provided first aid, and both were transported to a hospital. Strong died from her wounds. Cooper underwent emergency surgery and survived.
.
The precise sequence of the fatal gunfire was initially unclear enough that police publicly declined to say who had killed Strong. The department’s later statement said Strong “died from wounds received during the incident,” while confirming that an Allen officer had fired at her. The Texas Rangers assisted with the investigation because an Allen officer discharged a firearm.
.
Jonique Strong’s eyewitness account also provided important context preceding the shooting. She said she and Gloria were estranged and planning to divorce and that Gloria had been away from their home for at least two weeks. Jonique was at Wendy’s with her four-year-old daughter and Cooper, the child’s father, when Gloria encountered them. Jonique said jealousy involving Cooper contributed to the confrontation.
.
Jonique also said Gloria had previously taken her handgun and that police had recently been called concerning the situation but had not recovered the weapon. She said Gloria used that handgun to shoot Cooper before dropping it and picking up Cooper’s rifle. Thus, the encounter with police followed an extremely serious shooting, but the public record also shows that Allen police substantially revised their initial account after first portraying the incident as an exchange of gunfire between Strong and Cooper.
.
No encounter-related wrongful-death or civil-rights lawsuit by Strong’s family was identified in the later public record reviewed for this update.
.
OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Allen Police Department officer who fired at Strong was not publicly identified in the contemporary coverage, and later publicly accessible reporting reviewed for this update does not reliably establish the officer’s identity. Without that identification, a substantive individual background investigation for prior or subsequent shootings, complaints, discipline or civil litigation cannot be completed.
.
The Texas Rangers were brought into the investigation specifically because an Allen officer fired a weapon. The department’s changing account makes that independent investigation particularly important. Police initially told the public that Strong and Cooper had exchanged gunfire and that investigators did not know whose bullets killed her. By the following evening, Allen police acknowledged that Cooper never fired and that the only gunfire came from Strong and the officer.
.
There is also relevant institutional context involving Allen police and another high-profile death earlier that same year. On March 14, 2021, Allen police arrested 26-year-old Marvin Scott III at the Allen Premium Outlets after officers encountered him during what they described as erratic behavior and concerns for his safety. Scott, who had a documented history of mental illness, was transported to a hospital and then booked into the Collin County jail. He died hours later after detention officers restrained him, pepper-sprayed him and placed a spit hood over his head. An independent autopsy attributed his death to restraint and asphyxia.
.
Scott’s death triggered protests and intense scrutiny in Collin County. Seven Collin County detention officers were fired and an eighth resigned following the sheriff’s internal investigation. Although Scott died in county jail rather than directly in Allen police custody, Allen officers initiated the detention that placed him into the chain of custody preceding his death, making the case relevant to the policing environment in Allen during the months before Strong was killed.
.
The most important unresolved officer-background issue in Strong’s case remains the identity of the shooter. Because the officer’s name was withheld from the readily available public record, it is not possible to determine whether that officer had previous or subsequent fatal shootings or other relevant disciplinary or litigation history.

https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/armed-woman-dies-officer-involved-shooting-wendys-parking-lot-allen-texas/
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2021/09/27/woman-armed-with-a-rifle-dead-in-allen-after-officer-involved-shooting/
https://www.fox4news.com/news/woman-shot-dead-by-allen-officer-during-argument-with-man-identified
https://www.fox4news.com/news/allen-officer-fires-at-woman-involved-in-shootout-with-man-at-wendys-parking-lot

On 09/26/2021, 19-year-old Gabriel Salazar and his three passengers were killed in a fiery crash during a Crystal City Police Department pursuit on U.S. Highway 83 in Zavala County. Salazar, a San Antonio resident known online as “Gabenotbabe,” was driving a white 2014 Chevrolet Camaro north toward La Pryor.
.
The pursuit began at approximately 1:20 a.m. when a Zavala County sheriff’s deputy heard a Crystal City police officer initiate a traffic stop on U.S. 83 at FM 3292. The Crystal City officer soon radioed that the Camaro was continuing north and that the officer was pursuing it. Contemporary authorities and news reports did not disclose the specific traffic violation or other reason Crystal City police initially attempted to stop Salazar. That initiating reason remains an important unresolved part of the encounter.
.
A Zavala County sheriff’s deputy joined the police effort and attempted to deploy a tire-deflation device. Initial accounts described the deployment as unsuccessful. However, a later Human Rights Watch investigation of Operation Lone Star pursuit deaths reported that the stop device damaged Salazar’s vehicle before it continued out of control.
.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Camaro left the roadway, Salazar overcorrected, and the vehicle crossed the highway into the west ditch. It struck several trees, rolled multiple times and caught fire. Salazar and all three passengers were pronounced dead at the scene. The ruptured fuel tank reportedly complicated attempts to extinguish the fire.
.
The three passengers were Jose Luis Jimenez Mora, 41, Jose Molina Lara, 23, and Sergio Espinoza Flores, 36, all Mexican nationals from Zacatecas. Authorities subsequently said they were undocumented immigrants and opened a separate investigation into whether Salazar had been transporting them as part of a human-smuggling operation. Homeland Security Investigations assisted in that investigation. The suspected smuggling was identified after the fatal crash; available reporting did not establish that Crystal City police knew this when the officer initiated the traffic stop, and authorities did not identify it as the original reason for attempting to stop Salazar.
.
The broader context of this pursuit became substantially clearer after the initial reporting. Zavala County had joined Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star approximately two months before Salazar and his passengers were killed. Human Rights Watch later examined this crash as part of its investigation of deaths associated with aggressive vehicle pursuits under Operation Lone Star and characterized the four deaths as part of a broader pattern of preventable pursuit fatalities involving young drivers and migrants in Texas border counties.
.
Salazar’s family and friends publicly mourned him and established a memorial fundraiser. His sister Danna Salazar wrote that she would give anything to have her younger brother back and described the family’s profound loss. The later Human Rights Watch investigation strongly challenged the broader law-enforcement pursuit practices that produced deaths such as these, but available reporting does not document the Salazar family itself publicly alleging that police caused the crash or filing an encounter-related wrongful-death or civil-rights lawsuit.
.
OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Crystal City police officer who initiated and continued the pursuit has not been publicly identified in the records and reporting located for this update. The Zavala County deputy who attempted to deploy the tire-deflation device also has not been publicly identified.
.
The departmental context is significant because the pursuit occurred shortly after Zavala County joined Operation Lone Star. Human Rights Watch subsequently documented a broader pattern of dangerous and deadly law-enforcement vehicle pursuits connected with the border-enforcement program and specifically included the Salazar crash in its investigation. The organization concluded that Operation Lone Star pursuit practices endangered both migrants and Texas residents and documented cases in which stops for minor or poorly articulated reasons escalated into high-speed pursuits and fatal crashes.
.
Crystal City Police Department also has a documented history of serious misconduct predating this pursuit. Former Crystal City police officer Jimmy Aguilar was convicted by a federal jury on civil-rights charges after repeatedly assaulting a handcuffed man, including choking him, forcing a handgun barrel into his mouth and threatening to kill him, then providing a false statement to the FBI and encouraging other officers to give false accounts. The prosecution was brought by the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
.
Serious problems have continued at the department since Salazar’s death. In 2025, Crystal City police officer Abel Hernandez resigned in lieu of termination and was arrested during an investigation in which authorities alleged he made inappropriate comments to children he encountered while on duty and improperly disclosed sensitive law-enforcement information, including warning a wanted person about an active arrest warrant. In 2026, a parent filed a police report against two Crystal City officers after teenagers alleged that officers pointed firearms at them and aggressively detained children during execution of an arrest warrant; the department disputed portions of the teenagers’ account.
.
The most consequential unresolved issue in Salazar’s individual case remains much simpler: despite four deaths, contemporary authorities never publicly explained why the Crystal City officer initiated the traffic stop that escalated into the pursuit.

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/09/30/texas-tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-killed-in-fiery-police-pursuit-crash-in-zavala-county/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10042021/TikTok-star-Gabriel-Salazar-19-three-passengers-die-fiery-crash-high-speed-chase.html
https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/TikTok-Gabenotbabe-Gabriel-Salazar-fiery-car-crash-16493178.php
https://www.eonline.com/ca/news/1304481/tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-dead-at-19-following-police-chase
https://www.insideedition.com/tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-aka-gabenotbabe-dies-in-car-crash-following-police-chase-in-texas-cops
https://www.univision.com/local/san-antonio-kwex/muere-texas-tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-accidente
https://www.hrw.org/report/2023/11/27/so-much-blood-ground/dangerous-and-deadly-vehicle-pursuits-under-texas-operation
https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2004/September/04_crt_601.htm
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2025/03/28/crystal-city-police-officer-resigns-arrested-amid-child-exploitation-investigation-authorities-say/
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2026/04/18/report-filed-against-crystal-city-police-officers-for-being-so-aggressive-woman-says/

On 09/26/2021, 19-year-old Gabriel Salazar and his three passengers were killed in a fiery crash during a Crystal City Police Department pursuit on U.S. Highway 83 in Zavala County. Salazar, a San Antonio resident known online as “Gabenotbabe,” was driving a white 2014 Chevrolet Camaro north toward La Pryor.
.
The pursuit began at approximately 1:20 a.m. when a Zavala County sheriff’s deputy heard a Crystal City police officer initiate a traffic stop on U.S. 83 at FM 3292. The Crystal City officer soon radioed that the Camaro was continuing north and that the officer was pursuing it. Contemporary authorities and news reports did not disclose the specific traffic violation or other reason Crystal City police initially attempted to stop Salazar. That initiating reason remains an important unresolved part of the encounter.
.
A Zavala County sheriff’s deputy joined the police effort and attempted to deploy a tire-deflation device. Initial accounts described the deployment as unsuccessful. However, a later Human Rights Watch investigation of Operation Lone Star pursuit deaths reported that the stop device damaged Salazar’s vehicle before it continued out of control.
.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Camaro left the roadway, Salazar overcorrected, and the vehicle crossed the highway into the west ditch. It struck several trees, rolled multiple times and caught fire. Salazar and all three passengers were pronounced dead at the scene. The ruptured fuel tank reportedly complicated attempts to extinguish the fire.
.
The three passengers were Jose Luis Jimenez Mora, 41, Jose Molina Lara, 23, and Sergio Espinoza Flores, 36, all Mexican nationals from Zacatecas. Authorities subsequently said they were undocumented immigrants and opened a separate investigation into whether Salazar had been transporting them as part of a human-smuggling operation. Homeland Security Investigations assisted in that investigation. The suspected smuggling was identified after the fatal crash; available reporting did not establish that Crystal City police knew this when the officer initiated the traffic stop, and authorities did not identify it as the original reason for attempting to stop Salazar.
.
The broader context of this pursuit became substantially clearer after the initial reporting. Zavala County had joined Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star approximately two months before Salazar and his passengers were killed. Human Rights Watch later examined this crash as part of its investigation of deaths associated with aggressive vehicle pursuits under Operation Lone Star and characterized the four deaths as part of a broader pattern of preventable pursuit fatalities involving young drivers and migrants in Texas border counties.
.
Salazar’s family and friends publicly mourned him and established a memorial fundraiser. His sister Danna Salazar wrote that she would give anything to have her younger brother back and described the family’s profound loss. The later Human Rights Watch investigation strongly challenged the broader law-enforcement pursuit practices that produced deaths such as these, but available reporting does not document the Salazar family itself publicly alleging that police caused the crash or filing an encounter-related wrongful-death or civil-rights lawsuit.
.
OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Crystal City police officer who initiated and continued the pursuit has not been publicly identified in the records and reporting located for this update. The Zavala County deputy who attempted to deploy the tire-deflation device also has not been publicly identified.
.
The departmental context is significant because the pursuit occurred shortly after Zavala County joined Operation Lone Star. Human Rights Watch subsequently documented a broader pattern of dangerous and deadly law-enforcement vehicle pursuits connected with the border-enforcement program and specifically included the Salazar crash in its investigation. The organization concluded that Operation Lone Star pursuit practices endangered both migrants and Texas residents and documented cases in which stops for minor or poorly articulated reasons escalated into high-speed pursuits and fatal crashes.
.
Crystal City Police Department also has a documented history of serious misconduct predating this pursuit. Former Crystal City police officer Jimmy Aguilar was convicted by a federal jury on civil-rights charges after repeatedly assaulting a handcuffed man, including choking him, forcing a handgun barrel into his mouth and threatening to kill him, then providing a false statement to the FBI and encouraging other officers to give false accounts. The prosecution was brought by the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
.
Serious problems have continued at the department since Salazar’s death. In 2025, Crystal City police officer Abel Hernandez resigned in lieu of termination and was arrested during an investigation in which authorities alleged he made inappropriate comments to children he encountered while on duty and improperly disclosed sensitive law-enforcement information, including warning a wanted person about an active arrest warrant. In 2026, a parent filed a police report against two Crystal City officers after teenagers alleged that officers pointed firearms at them and aggressively detained children during execution of an arrest warrant; the department disputed portions of the teenagers’ account.
.
The most consequential unresolved issue in Salazar’s individual case remains much simpler: despite four deaths, contemporary authorities never publicly explained why the Crystal City officer initiated the traffic stop that escalated into the pursuit.

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/09/30/texas-tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-killed-in-fiery-police-pursuit-crash-in-zavala-county/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10042021/TikTok-star-Gabriel-Salazar-19-three-passengers-die-fiery-crash-high-speed-chase.html
https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/TikTok-Gabenotbabe-Gabriel-Salazar-fiery-car-crash-16493178.php
https://www.insideedition.com/tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-aka-gabenotbabe-dies-in-car-crash-following-police-chase-in-texas-cops
https://www.univision.com/local/san-antonio-kwex/muere-texas-tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-accidente
https://www.hrw.org/report/2023/11/27/so-much-blood-ground/dangerous-and-deadly-vehicle-pursuits-under-texas-operation
https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2004/September/04_crt_601.htm
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2025/03/28/crystal-city-police-officer-resigns-arrested-amid-child-exploitation-investigation-authorities-say/
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2026/04/18/report-filed-against-crystal-city-police-officers-for-being-so-aggressive-woman-says/

On 09/26/2021, 19-year-old Gabriel Salazar and his three passengers were killed in a fiery crash during a Crystal City Police Department pursuit on U.S. Highway 83 in Zavala County. Salazar, a San Antonio resident known online as “Gabenotbabe,” was driving a white 2014 Chevrolet Camaro north toward La Pryor.
.
The pursuit began at approximately 1:20 a.m. when a Zavala County sheriff’s deputy heard a Crystal City police officer initiate a traffic stop on U.S. 83 at FM 3292. The Crystal City officer soon radioed that the Camaro was continuing north and that the officer was pursuing it. Contemporary authorities and news reports did not disclose the specific traffic violation or other reason Crystal City police initially attempted to stop Salazar. That initiating reason remains an important unresolved part of the encounter.
.
A Zavala County sheriff’s deputy joined the police effort and attempted to deploy a tire-deflation device. Initial accounts described the deployment as unsuccessful. However, a later Human Rights Watch investigation of Operation Lone Star pursuit deaths reported that the stop device damaged Salazar’s vehicle before it continued out of control.
.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Camaro left the roadway, Salazar overcorrected, and the vehicle crossed the highway into the west ditch. It struck several trees, rolled multiple times and caught fire. Salazar and all three passengers were pronounced dead at the scene. The ruptured fuel tank reportedly complicated attempts to extinguish the fire.
.
The three passengers were Jose Luis Jimenez Mora, 41, Jose Molina Lara, 23, and Sergio Espinoza Flores, 36, all Mexican nationals from Zacatecas. Authorities subsequently said they were undocumented immigrants and opened a separate investigation into whether Salazar had been transporting them as part of a human-smuggling operation. Homeland Security Investigations assisted in that investigation. The suspected smuggling was identified after the fatal crash; available reporting did not establish that Crystal City police knew this when the officer initiated the traffic stop, and authorities did not identify it as the original reason for attempting to stop Salazar.
.
The broader context of this pursuit became substantially clearer after the initial reporting. Zavala County had joined Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star approximately two months before Salazar and his passengers were killed. Human Rights Watch later examined this crash as part of its investigation of deaths associated with aggressive vehicle pursuits under Operation Lone Star and characterized the four deaths as part of a broader pattern of preventable pursuit fatalities involving young drivers and migrants in Texas border counties.
.
Salazar’s family and friends publicly mourned him and established a memorial fundraiser. His sister Danna Salazar wrote that she would give anything to have her younger brother back and described the family’s profound loss. The later Human Rights Watch investigation strongly challenged the broader law-enforcement pursuit practices that produced deaths such as these, but available reporting does not document the Salazar family itself publicly alleging that police caused the crash or filing an encounter-related wrongful-death or civil-rights lawsuit.
.
OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Crystal City police officer who initiated and continued the pursuit has not been publicly identified in the records and reporting located for this update. The Zavala County deputy who attempted to deploy the tire-deflation device also has not been publicly identified.
.
The departmental context is significant because the pursuit occurred shortly after Zavala County joined Operation Lone Star. Human Rights Watch subsequently documented a broader pattern of dangerous and deadly law-enforcement vehicle pursuits connected with the border-enforcement program and specifically included the Salazar crash in its investigation. The organization concluded that Operation Lone Star pursuit practices endangered both migrants and Texas residents and documented cases in which stops for minor or poorly articulated reasons escalated into high-speed pursuits and fatal crashes.
.
Crystal City Police Department also has a documented history of serious misconduct predating this pursuit. Former Crystal City police officer Jimmy Aguilar was convicted by a federal jury on civil-rights charges after repeatedly assaulting a handcuffed man, including choking him, forcing a handgun barrel into his mouth and threatening to kill him, then providing a false statement to the FBI and encouraging other officers to give false accounts. The prosecution was brought by the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
.
Serious problems have continued at the department since Salazar’s death. In 2025, Crystal City police officer Abel Hernandez resigned in lieu of termination and was arrested during an investigation in which authorities alleged he made inappropriate comments to children he encountered while on duty and improperly disclosed sensitive law-enforcement information, including warning a wanted person about an active arrest warrant. In 2026, a parent filed a police report against two Crystal City officers after teenagers alleged that officers pointed firearms at them and aggressively detained children during execution of an arrest warrant; the department disputed portions of the teenagers’ account.
.
The most consequential unresolved issue in Salazar’s individual case remains much simpler: despite four deaths, contemporary authorities never publicly explained why the Crystal City officer initiated the traffic stop that escalated into the pursuit.

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/09/30/texas-tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-killed-in-fiery-police-pursuit-crash-in-zavala-county/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10042021/TikTok-star-Gabriel-Salazar-19-three-passengers-die-fiery-crash-high-speed-chase.html
https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/TikTok-Gabenotbabe-Gabriel-Salazar-fiery-car-crash-16493178.php
https://www.insideedition.com/tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-aka-gabenotbabe-dies-in-car-crash-following-police-chase-in-texas-cops
https://www.univision.com/local/san-antonio-kwex/muere-texas-tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-accidente
https://www.hrw.org/report/2023/11/27/so-much-blood-ground/dangerous-and-deadly-vehicle-pursuits-under-texas-operation
https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2004/September/04_crt_601.htm
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2025/03/28/crystal-city-police-officer-resigns-arrested-amid-child-exploitation-investigation-authorities-say/
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2026/04/18/report-filed-against-crystal-city-police-officers-for-being-so-aggressive-woman-says/

On 09/26/2021, 19-year-old Gabriel Salazar and his three passengers were killed in a fiery crash during a Crystal City Police Department pursuit on U.S. Highway 83 in Zavala County. Salazar, a San Antonio resident known online as “Gabenotbabe,” was driving a white 2014 Chevrolet Camaro north toward La Pryor.
.
The pursuit began at approximately 1:20 a.m. when a Zavala County sheriff’s deputy heard a Crystal City police officer initiate a traffic stop on U.S. 83 at FM 3292. The Crystal City officer soon radioed that the Camaro was continuing north and that the officer was pursuing it. Contemporary authorities and news reports did not disclose the specific traffic violation or other reason Crystal City police initially attempted to stop Salazar. That initiating reason remains an important unresolved part of the encounter.
.
A Zavala County sheriff’s deputy joined the police effort and attempted to deploy a tire-deflation device. Initial accounts described the deployment as unsuccessful. However, a later Human Rights Watch investigation of Operation Lone Star pursuit deaths reported that the stop device damaged Salazar’s vehicle before it continued out of control.
.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Camaro left the roadway, Salazar overcorrected, and the vehicle crossed the highway into the west ditch. It struck several trees, rolled multiple times and caught fire. Salazar and all three passengers were pronounced dead at the scene. The ruptured fuel tank reportedly complicated attempts to extinguish the fire.
.
The three passengers were Jose Luis Jimenez Mora, 41, Jose Molina Lara, 23, and Sergio Espinoza Flores, 36, all Mexican nationals from Zacatecas. Authorities subsequently said they were undocumented immigrants and opened a separate investigation into whether Salazar had been transporting them as part of a human-smuggling operation. Homeland Security Investigations assisted in that investigation. The suspected smuggling was identified after the fatal crash; available reporting did not establish that Crystal City police knew this when the officer initiated the traffic stop, and authorities did not identify it as the original reason for attempting to stop Salazar.
.
The broader context of this pursuit became substantially clearer after the initial reporting. Zavala County had joined Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star approximately two months before Salazar and his passengers were killed. Human Rights Watch later examined this crash as part of its investigation of deaths associated with aggressive vehicle pursuits under Operation Lone Star and characterized the four deaths as part of a broader pattern of preventable pursuit fatalities involving young drivers and migrants in Texas border counties.
.
Salazar’s family and friends publicly mourned him and established a memorial fundraiser. His sister Danna Salazar wrote that she would give anything to have her younger brother back and described the family’s profound loss. The later Human Rights Watch investigation strongly challenged the broader law-enforcement pursuit practices that produced deaths such as these, but available reporting does not document the Salazar family itself publicly alleging that police caused the crash or filing an encounter-related wrongful-death or civil-rights lawsuit.
.
OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Crystal City police officer who initiated and continued the pursuit has not been publicly identified in the records and reporting located for this update. The Zavala County deputy who attempted to deploy the tire-deflation device also has not been publicly identified.
.
The departmental context is significant because the pursuit occurred shortly after Zavala County joined Operation Lone Star. Human Rights Watch subsequently documented a broader pattern of dangerous and deadly law-enforcement vehicle pursuits connected with the border-enforcement program and specifically included the Salazar crash in its investigation. The organization concluded that Operation Lone Star pursuit practices endangered both migrants and Texas residents and documented cases in which stops for minor or poorly articulated reasons escalated into high-speed pursuits and fatal crashes.
.
Crystal City Police Department also has a documented history of serious misconduct predating this pursuit. Former Crystal City police officer Jimmy Aguilar was convicted by a federal jury on civil-rights charges after repeatedly assaulting a handcuffed man, including choking him, forcing a handgun barrel into his mouth and threatening to kill him, then providing a false statement to the FBI and encouraging other officers to give false accounts. The prosecution was brought by the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
.
Serious problems have continued at the department since Salazar’s death. In 2025, Crystal City police officer Abel Hernandez resigned in lieu of termination and was arrested during an investigation in which authorities alleged he made inappropriate comments to children he encountered while on duty and improperly disclosed sensitive law-enforcement information, including warning a wanted person about an active arrest warrant. In 2026, a parent filed a police report against two Crystal City officers after teenagers alleged that officers pointed firearms at them and aggressively detained children during execution of an arrest warrant; the department disputed portions of the teenagers’ account.
.
The most consequential unresolved issue in Salazar’s individual case remains much simpler: despite four deaths, contemporary authorities never publicly explained why the Crystal City officer initiated the traffic stop that escalated into the pursuit.

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/09/30/texas-tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-killed-in-fiery-police-pursuit-crash-in-zavala-county/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10042021/TikTok-star-Gabriel-Salazar-19-three-passengers-die-fiery-crash-high-speed-chase.html
https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/TikTok-Gabenotbabe-Gabriel-Salazar-fiery-car-crash-16493178.php
https://www.insideedition.com/tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-aka-gabenotbabe-dies-in-car-crash-following-police-chase-in-texas-cops
https://www.univision.com/local/san-antonio-kwex/muere-texas-tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-accidente
https://www.hrw.org/report/2023/11/27/so-much-blood-ground/dangerous-and-deadly-vehicle-pursuits-under-texas-operation
https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2004/September/04_crt_601.htm
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2025/03/28/crystal-city-police-officer-resigns-arrested-amid-child-exploitation-investigation-authorities-say/
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2026/04/18/report-filed-against-crystal-city-police-officers-for-being-so-aggressive-woman-says/

.
REASON FOR POLICE CHASE:
Hill County deputies were attempting to apprehend Randall Anthony Thurman, 34, in connection with the alleged abduction of two children from Walnut Springs. An AMBER Alert had been issued for an 8-year-old girl who authorities said remained in Thurman’s vehicle when deputies located it.
.
EVENT NARRATIVE:
On 09/25/2021, 85-year-old Maureena Charles Reid of Burleson was killed when a vehicle being pursued by Hill County deputies crossed into oncoming traffic on State Highway 171 in Johnson County and struck her Kia head-on. Reid was not involved in the events that prompted the pursuit and was driving in the opposite direction when the pursued vehicle entered her lane.
.
The events leading to the pursuit began the previous night in Walnut Springs, where the Bosque County Sheriff’s Office received a report at approximately 10:45 p.m. that two children, a 7-year-old boy and his 8-year-old sister, were missing. Their mother told deputies she believed the children were with a relative, Randall Anthony Thurman. Authorities subsequently determined that Thurman was a registered sex offender and alerted surrounding law-enforcement agencies.
.
At approximately 1:40 a.m., the boy reached a convenience store along Interstate 35 in Hill County and sought help. Authorities reported that clear packing tape had been wrapped around his throat and arms. The boy told deputies that Thurman had removed him from the vehicle, bound him with tape and driven away with his sister still in the car. The boy was transported for medical treatment, and authorities issued an AMBER Alert for the girl.
.
At approximately 9:15 a.m., Hill County resident Tracy Martin spotted the silver Chrysler 200 identified in the AMBER Alert among trees on his property. Martin said he saw the girl inside the car and Thurman crouching nearby. According to Martin, Thurman got into the Chrysler and attempted to strike Martin with it. Martin followed the vehicle while communicating with the sheriff’s office, pursuing it for approximately five miles and helping deputies locate it.
.
Hill County deputies subsequently located the Chrysler and attempted a traffic stop. Police said Thurman continued driving away and deputies pursued northbound on State Highway 171 toward Cleburne. Bosque County deputies were also involved in the multi-agency search. Public accounts do not provide an exact maximum pursuit speed, pursuit duration, total police-pursuit distance, or identify the individual deputies driving the pursuing vehicles. No use of stop sticks, a PIT/TVI maneuver, roadblock, or police-vehicle contact with the Chrysler was reported.
.
After the pursuit entered Johnson County, deputies reported that the Chrysler was traveling at high speed when it crossed the center line and continued toward Reid’s oncoming Kia. The Bosque County Sheriff’s Office said deputies believed the movement into opposing traffic was intentional. That conclusion was the law-enforcement account of Thurman’s actions; the publicly available reports do not identify independent crash-reconstruction evidence establishing his intent.
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The Chrysler struck Reid’s Kia head-on near the intersection of State Highway 171 and Johnson County Road 302. Reid and Thurman were both killed. The 8-year-old girl was found conscious in the front passenger seat of the Chrysler and communicated with officers at the scene. Emergency crews extricated her from the wreckage and CareFlight transported her to a hospital. She survived and was later released from the hospital.
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The Texas Department of Public Safety subsequently publicly identified Reid as the 85-year-old Burleson woman killed in the collision. Available reporting about her death concentrates almost entirely on the abduction and pursuit and provides little biographical information about Reid herself beyond her name, age and community.
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The fatal collision ended the pursuit and the search for the abducted girl. The individual Hill County deputies involved in the pursuit were not publicly identified in the sources located for this reconstruction.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
The Hill County deputies who initiated and participated in the pursuit have not been publicly identified.

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/crime/article254520872.html
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/09/25/two-children-safe-suspect-dead-following-abduction-in-central-texas-sheriff-says/
https://www.kwtx.com/2021/09/28/mother-central-texas-children-abducted-by-registered-sex-offender-charged/
https://www.fox4news.com/news/amber-alert-suspect-among-2-killed-in-johnson-county-crash-missing-girl-flown-to-hospital
https://www.kwtx.com/2021/11/09/bosque-county-girl-involved-amber-alert-out-hospital/

On 09/23/2021, McKinney Police Department officers shot and killed 40-year-old Paul Bryan Stone outside a residence in the 4900 block of Redwood Drive after a family member called 911 because Stone was suicidal, armed with a shotgun and experiencing a mental health crisis.
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Police received the family member’s 911 call at approximately 2:25 p.m. Officers responded to the residence and spent nearly an hour attempting to make contact with Stone. The encounter therefore began as a welfare response to a known mental health crisis rather than as an investigation of a reported crime committed against another person.
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According to McKinney police, Stone eventually came outside carrying a shotgun. Police alleged that he pointed the shotgun toward officers. Multiple officers then opened fire, striking Stone as he stood on the front lawn. He fell to the ground and died.
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The publicly released police account did not establish that Stone fired the shotgun before officers shot him. The stated justification for the police gunfire was the allegation that he pointed the weapon at officers.
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The Texas Rangers assumed responsibility for investigating the fatal shooting. McKinney police did not identify the officers who fired in the initial reporting.
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Stone’s case is important to classify accurately as a mental health crisis killing. His own family summoned police because they feared he was suicidal, and officers knew the nature of that crisis before they arrived. Police then spent nearly an hour attempting to communicate with him before the encounter ended in fatal gunfire.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The McKinney police officers who shot Stone have not been publicly identified in the reporting located for this update.

On 09/23/2021, McKinney Police Department officers shot and killed 40-year-old Paul Bryan Stone outside a residence in the 4900 block of Redwood Drive after a family member called 911 because Stone was suicidal, armed with a shotgun and experiencing a mental health crisis.
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Police received the family member’s 911 call at approximately 2:25 p.m. Officers responded to the residence and spent nearly an hour attempting to make contact with Stone. The encounter therefore began as a welfare response to a known mental health crisis rather than as an investigation of a reported crime committed against another person.
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According to McKinney police, Stone eventually came outside carrying a shotgun. Police alleged that he pointed the shotgun toward officers. Multiple officers then opened fire, striking Stone as he stood on the front lawn. He fell to the ground and died.
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The publicly released police account did not establish that Stone fired the shotgun before officers shot him. The stated justification for the police gunfire was the allegation that he pointed the weapon at officers.
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The Texas Rangers assumed responsibility for investigating the fatal shooting. McKinney police did not identify the officers who fired in the initial reporting.
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Stone’s case is important to classify accurately as a mental health crisis killing. His own family summoned police because they feared he was suicidal, and officers knew the nature of that crisis before they arrived. Police then spent nearly an hour attempting to communicate with him before the encounter ended in fatal gunfire.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The McKinney police officers who shot Stone have not been publicly identified in the reporting located for this update.

On 09/20/2021, Houston Police Department officers shot and killed 30-year-old Deon Ledet during an attempt to execute an arrest warrant at the Timber Ridge Apartments at 5350 Aeropark Drive in northeast Harris County. During the exchange of gunfire, HPD Senior Officer William “Bill” Jeffrey was fatally shot and Sgt. Michael Vance was critically wounded.
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The encounter began at approximately 7:30 a.m. when six HPD Major Offenders Division officers arrived at the apartment to arrest Ledet. The warrant stemmed from bond forfeiture connected to pending felony drug charges. Ledet had been wanted since January 2021 after failing to appear in court.
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The officers established positions around the apartment and knocked on the door. A woman answered and told them Ledet was inside. Officers remained outside the open doorway and called for Ledet to come out.
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According to police and subsequently released body-camera video, rapid gunfire erupted from inside the apartment as officers called for Ledet. Police alleged that Ledet fired through the doorway, striking Jeffrey and Vance before officers returned fire.
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Jeffrey was critically wounded and transported by Life Flight to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where he died. Vance suffered multiple gunshot wounds and underwent surgery. Ledet was struck by police gunfire and died at the apartment.
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The later release of body-camera recordings is important because the central portion of the encounter was captured rather than reconstructed exclusively from police statements. Video from multiple officers documented their conversation with the woman at the doorway immediately before the shooting and captured the sudden eruption of gunfire.
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Federal investigators subsequently examined Ledet's handgun and said it had been illegally modified with an auto switch allowing fully automatic fire. ATF officials said the sound and rate of gunfire captured by officers' body cameras were consistent with a weapon firing in fully automatic mode.
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An important discrepancy appears in the early reporting concerning precisely who returned fire. Houston Police Chief Troy Finner initially said officers returned fire and killed Ledet, while the Houston Chronicle reported that Jeffrey and Vance did not have an opportunity to return fire and that a third officer shot Ledet. The available public reporting reviewed for this update does not identify that third officer by name.
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Because the shooting occurred outside Houston city limits in unincorporated Harris County, the Harris County Sheriff's Office handled the criminal investigation, while HPD Internal Affairs conducted its administrative investigation.
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Ledet's relatives publicly discussed his life and history after the shooting, identifying him as a father of six who worked as a security guard at a scrapyard. The family comments located for this update do not establish a substantive challenge to the body-camera evidence showing the gunfire at the doorway.
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No encounter-related wrongful-death or federal civil-rights lawsuit by Ledet's family was identified in the later records located for this update.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The two HPD officers shot during the encounter were William “Bill” Jeffrey and Michael Vance. Jeffrey died from his wounds; Vance survived. A third HPD officer reportedly fired the shots that killed Ledet, but that officer's identity has not been publicly established in the sources located for this update.
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The broader Houston Police Department background is unusually significant in a case involving the execution of a narcotics-related felony warrant. Only two years before Ledet's death, HPD's narcotics operations had been engulfed by the Harding Street scandal following a January 2019 no-knock drug raid that killed Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas. Investigators ultimately determined that narcotics officer Gerald Goines had lied to obtain the search warrant that precipitated the fatal raid.
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The scandal did not remain confined to one bad warrant. It exposed broader problems within HPD narcotics enforcement, triggered criminal investigations of multiple officers and forced prosecutors to reexamine large numbers of cases connected to Goines and his unit. Goines was eventually convicted of murder for causing Tuttle's and Nicholas's deaths through the fraudulent warrant and sentenced to 60 years in prison.
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That history does not establish misconduct by the Major Offenders officers attempting to arrest Ledet, and Ledet's warrant was not the fraudulent type of warrant involved in Harding Street. It is nevertheless pertinent departmental context because this fatal encounter also originated in HPD drug enforcement: officers were attempting to execute an arrest warrant stemming from felony narcotics charges when the gunfight occurred.
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The body-camera release provides unusually strong evidence about the immediate circumstances surrounding Ledet's death, but the identity of the officer who actually shot him remains an important unresolved component of the record. Identifying that officer would permit the separate background review of prior or subsequent shootings, complaints, discipline and litigation that cannot reliably be performed while the shooter remains unnamed.
.

https://www.khou.com/article/news/crime/new-details-shootout-hpd-officer-suspect-dead-aeropark/285-a18db4b0-cdf1-4033-ac7b-22ac2ebf8460
https://www.houstontx.gov/police/fallen_officers/Senior_Police_Officer_William_Bill_Jeffrey.htm
https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/09/20/deon-ledet-this-is-what-we-know-about-the-suspect-in-the-hpd-shooting-of-2-officers-according-to-family/
https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/09/20/2-officers-shot-in-northeast-houston-police-say/
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/crime/article/Two-police-officers-shot-in-north-Houston-16472537.php
https://abc13.com/deon-ledet-william-bill-jeffrey-hpd-officer-killed-shot-to-death/11118157/
https://abc13.com/post/deon-ledet-william-bill-jeffrey-hpd-officer-killed-shot-to-death/11033359/
https://www.fox26houston.com/news/suspect-who-shot-killed-houston-police-officer-identified-as-wanted-fugitive
https://apnews.com/article/44615a811db21398a9820ffc8cbc979e
https://apnews.com/article/1ee81ed2947a72e43ebf9e6f6435e1f1

On 09/16/2021, Walker County Sheriff’s Office deputies shot and killed 38-year-old Dan Ross Boyd II at a residence in the 5300 block of FM 1374 outside Huntsville after responding at approximately 10:48 a.m. to a 911 call reporting a disturbance involving a person with a weapon.
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Boyd was born July 5, 1983, in Orlando, Florida. He was married and the father of three children and worked for Vista Ridge Concrete. His family obituary described him as a devoted father and son who enjoyed cooking and fishing.
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According to the Walker County Sheriff’s Office, a family member called 911 and reported a disturbance involving Boyd and a firearm. Police alleged that Boyd had discharged a firearm several times while other people were inside the residence.
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Deputies responded to the property, evacuated people from neighboring residences and attempted to establish contact with Boyd. Police alleged that Boyd subsequently appeared at a window and fired toward deputies positioned outside the residence.
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Multiple Walker County deputies then opened fire on Boyd. Deputies subsequently entered the residence to provide medical aid and found Boyd dead from gunshot wounds.
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The publicly released account did not identify the deputies who fired, specify how many deputies discharged their weapons, disclose how many police rounds were fired or state how many times Boyd was struck.
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The Walker County Sheriff’s Office did not conduct the principal investigation of its own deputies' fatal gunfire. The investigation was turned over to the Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas Rangers. DPS personnel, Texas Rangers, Highway Patrol troopers and the Walker County Precinct 4 Constable’s Office were among the agencies responding to the scene.
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The available public record remains unusually limited concerning the final disposition of the investigation. The initial account establishes that multiple deputies fired at Boyd, making identification of each shooting deputy and an officer-by-officer accounting of the gunfire particularly important.
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Boyd's identity can now be definitively corrected in the database. His obituary records his full name as Dan Ross Boyd II, gives his birth date as 07/05/1983 and states that he died in Huntsville on 09/16/2021.
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There is also significant background immediately preceding Boyd's death that was absent from the earlier report. In June 2021, approximately 2½ months before the fatal shooting, Boyd was arrested in Florida following an incident at a DeLand residence. According to the arrest report described by local media, Boyd told authorities he had consumed tequila, LSD and marijuana and did not know where he was. Police alleged that he entered an unfamiliar man's home and became involved in a violent confrontation with the homeowner. He was medically evaluated and subsequently arrested on burglary-with-assault and resisting charges.
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That incident is potentially relevant because of its proximity to Boyd's death and because both encounters involved allegations of severely disturbed and violent behavior. It should not, however, be used to establish that the Sheriff's Office's account of the completely separate September encounter was accurate. The circumstances of the fatal shooting must stand on the evidence from the 09/16/2021 incident itself.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Walker County deputies who fired at Boyd have not been publicly identified.

https://www.kbtx.com/2021/09/17/suspect-killed-walker-county-deputy-involved-shooting/
https://www.wallerthorntonfh.com/obituary/dan-r-boyd
https://www.leesburg-news.com/2021/06/30/leesburg-man-arrested-after-declaring-hes-homeowners-worst-nightmare/

On 09/16/2021, a Hawkins Police Department officer shot and killed 21-year-old Shiane Marie Selph near FM 14 and Hawkins High School after police received a disturbance call reporting a woman in the roadway. The shooting occurred at approximately 4:45 p.m.
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According to Hawkins Police Chief Manfred Gilow, police received the call at approximately 5 p.m. reporting a disturbance in the roadway. A witness caught in stopped traffic reported seeing Selph in the roadway with a machete and alleged that she was striking or attacking passing vehicles with it. Police said more than eight witnesses were present during the encounter.
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Police alleged that when the patrol officer arrived, Selph turned toward him and advanced while swinging or slashing the machete. Chief Gilow said the officer initially attempted to de-escalate the confrontation rather than immediately firing his gun.
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The officer then deployed a Taser against Selph. Police said the Taser was ineffective. According to Gilow, Selph continued toward the officer and the machete made contact with him, although the officer was not physically injured. The officer then opened fire, killing Selph at the scene.
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The available account therefore establishes an important sequence before the fatal gunfire: the officer confronted Selph alone, attempted verbal de-escalation, deployed a Taser, and fired his gun only after police alleged the Taser failed and Selph continued toward him with the machete. At least eight witnesses reportedly observed portions of the incident.
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The Texas Rangers assumed responsibility for investigating the fatal shooting at the request of the Hawkins Police Department. Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Sgt. Jean Dark confirmed that Rangers were requested to conduct the investigation.
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Police initially declined to release either Selph's identity or the identity of the officer who killed her. Chief Gilow said the shooting officer was placed on paid administrative leave while the Texas Rangers investigated.
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The encounter was recorded. Contemporary reporting specifically states that investigators were withholding dash-camera and body-camera video while the Rangers' investigation was underway. The existence of those recordings is significant because the video should provide direct evidence of Selph's actions, the officer's attempted de-escalation, the Taser deployment, the distance between Selph and the officer and the circumstances immediately preceding the gunfire.
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Despite the existence of eyewitnesses and police video, the readily accessible later public record provides remarkably little information about the ultimate disposition of the shooting. The Texas Rangers investigation was acknowledged publicly, but the materials located for this update do not establish a later public release of the investigative findings or video.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Hawkins police officer who shot and killed Selph has not been publicly identified in the records located for this update.
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The agency itself subsequently experienced substantial instability. Hawkins is a very small East Texas city, and later reporting documented repeated personnel and governmental turmoil involving its police department. Chief Manfred Gilow, who publicly described the circumstances of Selph's shooting, resigned in June 2022. By 2025, Hawkins had experienced further police departures and dismissals, public discussion about potentially disbanding the department, and a period in which the department reportedly operated with only one officer.
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Those later departmental problems do not establish wrongdoing in Selph's 2021 killing. The more directly relevant accountability issue is that the fatal shooting itself was turned over to the Texas Rangers, involved numerous reported civilian witnesses and was captured on police video, while the shooting officer's identity and a readily accessible final public accounting of the investigation remain difficult to establish years later.

https://www.kltv.com/2021/09/17/machete-wielding-woman-shot-by-hawkins-police-after-advancing-officer/
https://www.kltv.com/2021/09/17/texas-rangers-called-investigate-hawkins-officer-involved-shooting/
https://www.easttexaslocal.net/timeline-what-is-going-on-in-the-city-of-hawkins/

On 09/16/2021, Wichita Falls police shot and killed 17-year-old Gabriel Micheal Varela following a lengthy barricade at a residence in the 3100 block of Lawrence Road. Varela was a senior at Wichita Falls High School. His obituary confirms his full name, age and date of death.
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Police responded after receiving information concerning an armed person at the residence. Officers surrounded the property and attempted to communicate with Varela during an extended standoff. Police alleged that Varela was armed with a handgun.
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According to the police account, officers attempted for several hours to persuade Varela to surrender. The Wichita Falls Police Department SWAT team was deployed during the barricade.
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Police alleged that Varela eventually emerged from the residence armed with a handgun. According to authorities, officers repeatedly ordered him to drop the weapon.
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Police alleged that Varela instead raised or pointed the handgun toward officers. Wichita Falls police then opened fire, striking him. Varela was transported for medical treatment but died from his injuries.
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Varela was only 17 years old. He was born on 08/31/2004 and had turned 17 approximately two weeks before police killed him. He attended Wichita Falls High School and was remembered by his family as someone who enjoyed baseball, football, animals, baking, video games and spending time with his siblings and friends.
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The shooting was documented in an Attorney General report filed by Wichita Falls police. The available reporting indicated that multiple officers fired during the encounter, but the publicly accessible sources reviewed for this update do not provide a reliable complete identification of every officer who discharged a weapon. The Officer(s) field should therefore remain Not Disclosed rather than assigning the shooting to an officer whose role cannot be firmly established.
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The available contemporary reporting does not establish that Varela fired at police before officers opened fire. The police justification instead centered on the allegation that he pointed a handgun toward officers following the prolonged barricade. That distinction should be preserved rather than describing the encounter as an exchange of gunfire unless later forensic or investigative records establish otherwise.
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The circumstances also place Varela's death within a mental health crisis context. Police were dealing with a teenager during a prolonged armed barricade, with officers reportedly spending hours attempting to obtain his surrender before the fatal confrontation. The precise nature of Varela's crisis and what information responding officers possessed about his mental state should be established from the underlying incident, dispatch and negotiation records rather than inferred from the eventual police shooting.
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The publicly accessible record is considerably thinner concerning what happened after the shooting. The Attorney General filing documents the police use of deadly force, but a detailed publicly available outside investigative report, grand-jury record or prosecutorial analysis reconstructing the shooting was not identified during this update.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Wichita Falls officers who shot Gabriel Varela have not been reliably identified in the public records reviewed for this update.
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The inability to identify the shooting officers prevents the individual background investigation normally performed for this database, including searches for previous shootings, complaints, discipline, civil-rights litigation and other significant use-of-force incidents.
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The Wichita Falls Police Department has, however, subsequently experienced a significant documented accountability case. In 2025, the department investigated officers Daniel Wilson and Gulley following the arrest and treatment of a woman identified by the city as Ms. Lang. Police Chief Manuel Borrego later publicly described what occurred as a failure by the department and said both officers violated existing departmental policies. Wilson was terminated and Gulley resigned following suspension. The Texas Rangers opened an independent criminal investigation.
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The department itself subsequently announced expanded training involving responses to people experiencing mental health crises, de-escalation, arrest and control techniques, constitutional law and arrest criteria. Those reforms occurred years after Varela's killing and do not establish misconduct in his case, but they constitute substantive later departmental history concerning precisely the kinds of crisis-response and de-escalation practices relevant to armed confrontations.
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In May 2026, the City of Wichita Falls announced that former officer Daniel Wilson had been indicted in connection with the later case. City officials simultaneously said broader departmental reform efforts were underway.
.

https://www.timesrecordnews.com/story/news/2021/09/17/wichita-falls-police-shooting-gabriel-varela/8366920002/
https://www.texomashomepage.com/news/local-news/man-shot-killed-by-police-in-wichita-falls/
https://www.kswo.com/2021/09/17/teen-killed-officer-involved-shooting-wichita-falls/
https://www.texomashomepage.com/news/local-news/subject-killed-during-police-standoff-identified/

https://www.timesrecordnews.com/story/news/local/2021/10/04/wichita-falls-tx-police-shooting-attorney-general-report/5987436001/

On 09/13/2021, 39-year-old Andres Salazar died from gunshot wounds during a Harris County Sheriff’s Office response to an armed robbery at a game room in the 16200 block of Avenue C in Channelview. Salazar's obituary confirms that he died in Channelview on September 13, 2021.
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Harris County deputies were dispatched shortly after 1:30 a.m. following reports of an armed robbery at the game room. Investigators said multiple armed men had entered the business. During the robbery, a security guard was assaulted and pistol-whipped and was later transported to a hospital in stable condition.
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The encounter developed into an exchange of gunfire involving at least one Harris County deputy. Authorities subsequently found one man dead near the entrance to the game room. Two other men were taken into custody, with a SWAT team deployed during the operation and at least one of the men eventually surrendering.
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Critically, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said investigators did not initially know who fired the shot or shots that killed the deceased man. Gonzalez specifically said it was unclear whether the fatal wounds occurred during the exchange of gunfire with a deputy or during an earlier possible encounter with the game room's security guard.
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That uncertainty is important for classification of this case. Contemporary reporting establishes that a Harris County deputy exchanged gunfire during the incident, but the Sheriff's Office itself did not initially establish whether police gunfire caused the fatal wound. The death therefore should not be described definitively as a deputy shooting unless later ballistics, autopsy or investigative records establish that the fatal projectile came from the deputy's firearm.
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The original reporting also did not publicly identify the deceased man. However, subsequent obituary records identify 39-year-old Andres Salazar as having died in Channelview on 09/13/2021, the same date and community as this fatal incident. Salazar was born on 02/12/1982 in Houston and left a wife, son and three daughters.
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The obituary evidence strongly points to Salazar as the deceased man in this incident, but the sources located for this update do not provide an official Harris County Sheriff's Office record explicitly connecting his name to the game room shooting. For that reason, the identification should be treated with caution pending confirmation through the Harris County medical examiner or complete HCSO investigative file.
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The most important unresolved evidentiary question is the source of the fatal gunfire. The initial Sheriff's Office account expressly left open two possibilities: Salazar was struck during the deputy's exchange of gunfire, or he had already been shot during a confrontation with the security guard. Determining that question requires the autopsy, firearms examination, recovered-projectile comparison and complete HCSO shooting investigation.
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If forensic records establish that the security guard rather than the deputy fired the fatal shot, this case should be removed from the database as a police-caused fatality. If the projectile is matched to the deputy's weapon, the Cause of Death and Event fields should be revised to reflect a fatal police shooting.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Harris County deputy who exchanged gunfire during the Channelview game room incident has not been publicly identified in the records located for this update.
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Because the deputy's identity remains undisclosed, no reliable individual investigation of prior shootings, complaints, discipline, civil-rights litigation or other significant use-of-force incidents can be attached to that officer.
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The Harris County Sheriff’s Office had substantial documented use-of-force and accountability issues during this general period, particularly involving deaths in custody and allegations of excessive force. However, those institutional matters do not resolve the central issue in this particular case: whether a sheriff's deputy or a private security guard fired the shot that killed the deceased man.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/crime/article/One-dead-in-Channelview-during-armed-robbery-of-16454453.php
https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/09/13/1-suspect-dead-2-in-custody-after-armed-robbery-at-game-room-in-channelview-deputies-say/
https://www.compeanfuneralhomes.com/obituaries/andres-salazar

On 09/12/2021, two San Antonio Police Department officers shot and killed 46-year-old Rodolfo Gonzales in the 200 block of Pima Street after pursuing him on a bicycle and physically struggling with him during an attempted traffic stop. Initial police reporting described the officers as conducting a routine drug patrol and approaching Gonzales while he was in a vehicle, but SAPD's later critical-incident release materially clarified the circumstances: Gonzales was riding a bicycle, and officers initiated a traffic stop after observing alleged traffic violations.
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The two officers were conducting a directed patrol near Pima Street and Palo Alto Road because police considered a nearby residence a known narcotics location. According to SAPD's later reconstruction, officers saw Gonzales riding a bicycle toward that residence. Police said they observed traffic violations and decided to stop him. The publicly available descriptions reviewed for this update do not specify precisely which bicycle traffic violations officers alleged Gonzales committed.
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Gonzales initially appeared to stop when officers attempted to make contact with him but then continued riding away. The officers pursued him in their patrol vehicle and ordered him to stop over the vehicle's public-address system. SAPD alleged that Gonzales discarded an unidentified object while riding away.
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The officers continued following Gonzales until they used their patrol vehicle to cut off his path in the 200 block of Pima Street. Body-camera and dash-camera recordings of the encounter were subsequently released by SAPD.
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After Gonzales was stopped, the officers attempted to physically take him into custody. Police alleged that during the struggle Gonzales reached toward his waistband and grabbed a handgun. SAPD said the officers attempted to wrestle the firearm away from him and that Gonzales would not release it.
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Both officers then fired at Gonzales. He was struck multiple times and died at the scene. SAPD's released video shows a handgun beside Gonzales' right arm after the shooting.
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The body-camera evidence is particularly important in this case because it provides considerably more information than the initial September 12 police account. One officer's camera was substantially obstructed during the physical struggle, while the second officer's camera provided a clearer, although still imperfect, view of the confrontation.
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SAPD did not release the critical-incident video until 11/11/2021, approximately two months after Gonzales was killed. The department released both an officer-narrated presentation and unnarrated footage. At that time, SAPD said the investigation remained under review by the Bexar County District Attorney's Office.
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An important correction to the original reporting is therefore necessary. This was not simply an encounter in which officers approached Gonzales during a generalized drug investigation and he attempted to avoid arrest. SAPD's own later account establishes that officers were conducting directed narcotics patrol but initiated their enforcement action against Gonzales as a bicycle traffic stop for alleged traffic violations. Gonzales then continued riding away, officers pursued him, blocked his path, and the fatal confrontation occurred during the resulting physical attempt to take him into custody.
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SAPD's public officer-shooting archive continues to list this incident separately as the 09/12/2021 shooting at 206 Pima Street, confirming the precise address associated with the fatal encounter.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The two San Antonio Police Department officers who shot Rodolfo Gonzales have not been publicly identified in the records located for this update.
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The most directly relevant agency issue in this case concerns the nature of the stop itself. The officers were assigned to directed patrol around what SAPD characterized as a known narcotics house, but the legal intervention against Gonzales was described by the department as a bicycle traffic stop based upon alleged traffic violations. The exact alleged violations therefore matter in reconstructing why officers initially exercised police authority over Gonzales.

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/09/12/man-shot-killed-by-officers-after-reaching-for-gun-while-avoiding-arrest-police-say/
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/11/12/sapd-releases-bodycam-video-from-officer-involved-shooting-on-southwest-side/

https://www.sanantonio.gov/GMA/NCDWeek/Event-Details/ArtMID/26569/ArticleID/21829/San-Antonio-Police-Department-Critical-Incident-Video-Releases

https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/San-Antonio-police-release-footage-of-fatal-16614173.php/

https://www.sa.gov/Directory/Departments/SAPD/Transparency-Open-Data/Open-Data-Library/Officer-Involved-Shootings

On 09/11/2021, at approximately 10:09 p.m., a Bexar County Sheriff’s Office deputy stopped an SUV for a tail-light violation in the 3000 block of Interstate 35 North southbound near Hormel Drive. William Frank Hull Jr., also known as William Albert Conort IV, was a passenger in the SUV.

According to BCSO, Hull got out carrying a backpack and ran from the traffic stop. The deputy called for assistance, and a second deputy pursued Hull on foot.

BCSO alleged that Hull fired at least one gunshot at the pursuing deputy. Sheriff Javier Salazar said the deputy took cover or concealment, retrieved his patrol rifle and returned fire, firing at least two rounds and striking Hull in the upper body. Hull died at the scene.

BCSO reported recovering a 9mm semiautomatic handgun attributed to Hull and subsequently said the firearm had been reported stolen.

The deputy who killed Hull was a BCSO SWAT member. The deputy was placed on administrative leave while the shooting was reviewed by BCSO Internal Affairs and the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office.

OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office SWAT deputy who shot and killed Hull has not been publicly identified.

https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/suspect-dead-after-shooting-at-bexar-county-sheriffs-deputy-during-traffic-stop
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/09/13/bexar-county-sheriff-blames-increase-in-deputies-being-shot-at-on-new-gun-law/
https://www.ksat.com/news/texas/2021/09/12/2-shot-dead-in-separate-incidents-by-san-antonio-area-police/
https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/2-shot-dead-san-antonio-area-police/
https://www.missionparks.com/obituaries/william-hull-9/#!/TributeWall
 

On 09/09/2021, 23-year-old William Escano Yah fatally shot himself as Houston Police Department officers approached to arrest him near Burnett Bayland Park in southwest Houston. He was transported to a hospital and pronounced dead.
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HPD was seeking Escano Yah in connection with the killings of four members of his family at 7518 Imogene Street. Houston firefighters responding to a house fire on 09/05/2021 found Jairo Escano Martinez, 37; Elvira Del Carmen Yah Aviles, 46; and two children, a 12-year-old girl and 10-year-old boy, dead inside. HPD reported that all four appeared to have been shot. Family members identified the children as Isabel Escano and Jairo Escano Jr.; contemporary news reports gave Isabel's age as 13.
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Escano Yah was Elvira Yah Aviles' son and Jairo Escano Martinez's stepson. Police said there were no signs of forced entry at the family residence and later identified Escano Yah as the person suspected of killing all four family members.
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Investigators were also looking for a vehicle missing from the family's home. Surveillance video from a neighboring residence reportedly showed a vehicle matching that description traveling to and from the Imogene Street residence around the period of the killings and fire.
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At approximately 8:30 a.m. on September 9, officers located Escano Yah inside the family's stolen vehicle in the 6000 block of Alder Drive beside Burnett Bayland Park. As officers approached and gave him verbal commands, police said Escano Yah shot himself in the head.
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HPD officers did not shoot Escano Yah. Police reported that the fatal gunshot was self-inflicted and that he shot himself while officers were attempting to take him into custody.
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HPD said investigators did not believe another person participated in the four killings. Escano Yah's death therefore ended the possibility of prosecuting the person police had identified as responsible for the quadruple homicide.

https://abc13.com/escano-family-murders-man-suspected-of-killing-4-suicide-at-burnett-bayland-park-houston-murder-suspect-killed/11010584/
https://www.houstontx.gov/police/nr/2021/sep/nr090921-5.htm
https://abc13.com/houston-crime-family-found-dead-in-home-after-house-fire-imogene-street/11006558/
https://abc13.com/house-fire-bodies-found-four-shot-houston-shooting/11001313/

On 09/09/2021, Fort Worth Police Department officers shot and killed an unidentified man during a traffic stop in the 1900 block of SE Loop 820 in southeast Fort Worth. The shooting occurred during the evening hours. The original Fort Worth Star-Telegram, CBS DFW and NBC DFW reports all covered the shooting, but the surviving archived/indexed material contains unusually little detail about the encounter.
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Officers had initiated a traffic stop before the shooting. During the encounter, Fort Worth police officers fired at the driver, killing him at the scene. The contemporaneous public reporting did not establish the specific traffic violation or other reason that caused police to initiate the stop.
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The original reporting did not publicly identify the man, give his age or disclose his race. A search of later reporting and indexed records through 2026 did not produce a reliable subsequent identification that can be tied to this shooting.
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The available reporting likewise does not establish what police alleged the man did immediately before officers fired, whether police alleged he possessed or displayed a weapon, how many officers fired, how many rounds were discharged, or whether any non-police witnesses recorded the encounter.
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The location reported for the shooting, the 1900 block of SE Loop 820, is an industrial/commercial area. Public property records identify 1900 SE Loop 820 as a large industrial property. This does not establish that the shooting occurred on that property rather than on the adjacent roadway.
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The original reports stated that the police shooting was under investigation. Later publicly searchable material located for this update does not identify the involved officers or establish a subsequent criminal prosecution arising from the shooting.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Fort Worth police officers who shot and killed the man have not been publicly identified.
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The Fort Worth Police Department has a substantial documented history of controversial uses of deadly force and accountability problems, but no officer-specific history can responsibly be attached to this case without identifying the officers who fired.

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/crime/article254143698.html
https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2021/09/09/fort-worth-police-shooting-investigation/
https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/police-investigating-officer-involved-shooting-in-fort-worth/2740145/

On 09/07/2021, an Angelina County sheriff’s deputy and a Lufkin Police Department officer shot 43-year-old Richard “Ricky” Woods while attempting to arrest him on a felony warrant in the parking lot of Bigs, formerly Cherry’s Grocery, at 2701 N. Raguet Street in Lufkin. Woods was transported to a hospital and died shortly afterward.
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The warrant stemmed from an alleged 08/27/2021 assault on Woods’ former girlfriend. Police said they were called to a Lufkin hospital after the woman reported that Woods had cut her vehicle’s battery cables and strangled her. She told police she lost consciousness three times. Officers documented bleeding, bruising and red marks on her face and neck and a swollen area on her forehead. A felony warrant was subsequently issued for Woods.
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On September 7, a Lufkin police officer and Angelina County deputy received information that Woods would be at Bigs. At approximately 4:15 p.m., they saw him walk into the store and waited for him to return to his vehicle before attempting the arrest.
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According to the joint police and sheriff’s office account, Woods pulled a handgun when the officers confronted him in the parking lot. The Angelina County deputy fired first, striking Woods and causing him to fall.
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Police alleged that after falling, Woods remained on the ground but began reaching and crawling toward his handgun. The Lufkin officer approached carrying a patrol rifle and then fired at Woods. Police said the second shooting occurred because Woods was continuing to reach for the gun while the deputy and civilians were nearby in the busy gas-station parking lot.
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The deputy and Lufkin officer immediately provided medical aid, including applying a chest seal and tourniquets. EMS transported Woods to a Lufkin hospital, where he died.
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The Lufkin officer had previous direct contact with Woods because he was Woods’ designated sex-offender accountability officer. In that role, the officer conducted monthly face-to-face contacts with Woods to monitor his registration status and compliance.
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Lufkin police and the Angelina County Sheriff’s Office released a portion of the Lufkin officer’s body-camera recording after the shooting. The agencies said the release was intended to show the encounter publicly while the investigation continued.
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The Texas Rangers assumed the outside investigation because personnel from both the Angelina County Sheriff’s Office and Lufkin Police Department had fired. Both shooters were placed on administrative leave pending completion of the investigation and presentation to a grand jury.
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This was the second fatal police shooting in Lufkin on September 7. Earlier that same day, a Lufkin police officer shot and killed 52-year-old Anthony Cravo during a separate encounter. Texas Rangers investigated both shootings.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Angelina County deputy who first shot Woods and the Lufkin police officer who subsequently shot Woods with a patrol rifle were not named in the contemporary reports located for this update. The agencies initially stated that the officers’ names would not be released until they had provided their investigative statements. Later publicly searchable reporting located through 2026 does not establish their identities sufficiently to place names in the Officer(s) field.
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The Lufkin officer was not a stranger to Woods: he was Woods’ sex-offender accountability officer and had been conducting monthly face-to-face monitoring contacts with him before the fatal encounter.
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AGENCY RECORD
The Woods shooting was one of two separate fatal law-enforcement shootings in Lufkin on the same day. Texas Rangers investigated both rather than allowing the involved local agencies to conduct the criminal investigations themselves.

https://www.kltv.com/2021/09/07/lufkin-police-assisting-with-multi-agency-investigation-former-cherrys-grocery/
https://www.ktre.com/2021/09/07/lufkin-police-assisting-with-multi-agency-investigation-former-cherrys-grocery/
https://www.ktre.com/2021/09/08/authorities-man-shot-lufkin-store-had-choked-woman-with-battery-cables/
https://kicks105.com/lpdacso-give-more-details-on-tuesdays-fatal-shooting-at-bigs/

On 09/07/2021, a Lufkin Police Department officer shot and killed 52-year-old Anthony Cravo of Cypress during an armed-robbery investigation at a property containing two mobile homes in the 900 block of North Chestnut Street. Police released a portion of the officer's body-camera recording shortly after the shooting, and the Texas Rangers conducted the outside criminal investigation.
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The encounter began shortly after midnight when officers found a man outside the mobile homes bleeding from a head injury. The man and a woman with him reported that an armed man had taken their car keys, wallet and cellphone and struck the male victim in the head with the butt of a long gun. They initially told police the armed man had fled on foot.
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The injured man directed an officer to the second mobile home on the property, where police believed witnesses or the armed man might be located. The front door was open but covered by a sheet. The officer approached and knocked on the open doorway with a flashlight.
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Body-camera footage recorded a person inside saying, “Come in.” The officer instead asked the person to come outside and speak with him. Investigators subsequently determined that the voice inviting the officer inside belonged to one of the victims rather than Cravo.
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Cravo then emerged through the doorway carrying a rifle. According to Lufkin police, Cravo raised the rifle toward the uniformed officer. The officer immediately fired approximately two rounds, striking Cravo. The released body-camera footage captured the approach, verbal exchange and gunfire.
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Cravo was transported by ambulance to a helicopter landing site and then flown to an out-of-area hospital, where he died. Police described Cravo as apparently unknown to both the responding officers and the two people involved in the reported robbery. One of those victims had been severely beaten and was also flown to a Houston hospital.
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The Lufkin Police Department conducted a criminal investigation into the alleged robbery and assault and an internal administrative investigation into whether department policies were followed. The Texas Rangers separately investigated the officer's use of deadly force.
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Cravo's killing was the first of two fatal police shootings in Lufkin on September 7, 2021. Later that day, Lufkin police and an Angelina County sheriff's deputy shot and killed Richard Dee Woods while attempting to arrest him on a felony warrant at a convenience store. The Texas Rangers investigated both shootings.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Lufkin police officer who shot Anthony Cravo has not been publicly identified in the records located for this update.

https://kicks105.com/lufkin-police-report-suspect-killed-in-officer-involved-shooting/ 

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REASON FOR POLICE CHASE:
Expired vehicle registration. Garland Police Officer Ryan Kelly stopped a black Honda Accord because its registration sticker was expired. While Kelly was checking the driver's information, police said officers observed evidence of narcotics inside the vehicle. Before officers could investigate further, the driver drove away at high speed and Kelly pursued.
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EVENT NARRATIVE:
On 09/06/2021, 28-year-old Karla Marbel Rico was killed when a Honda Accord being pursued by Garland police ran a red light and crashed into her Toyota at West Miller Road and South Garland Avenue. Rico's 10-year-old son Matthew was riding with her and was critically injured. The family's dog, Apollo, was also killed.
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Shortly after 3:30 p.m., Officer Ryan Kelly stopped the Honda near Shiloh Road and Northwest Highway for an expired registration sticker. Three people were inside. During the stop, police reported seeing evidence of narcotics in the vehicle. Kelly was verifying the driver's information when the driver suddenly drove away.
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Kelly pursued in his patrol vehicle, and other Garland officers joined the pursuit. Dash-camera and body-camera recordings later introduced at trial documented the chase. Kelly can be heard reporting that the Honda was exceeding 90 mph, running red lights and crossing into opposing traffic lanes. The Dallas County District Attorney's Office later reported that the Honda averaged approximately 99 mph during the pursuit.
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The Honda traveled approximately three miles north on Garland Avenue. Police initially reported that officers attempting to catch it lost sight of the vehicle. Other officers working an unrelated call near Axe Drive and Garland Avenue then saw it pass at high speed.
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As the Honda approached the red light at West Miller Road and South Garland Avenue, another Garland officer positioned near the intersection saw it approaching at high speed. That officer activated the patrol vehicle's emergency lights and siren in an attempt to warn motorists at the intersection.
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The Honda entered the intersection against the red light and struck Rico's silver Toyota as she traveled west on Miller Road. The impact killed Rico. The Honda then struck a black Honda CR-V that had been stopped at the red light. The CR-V driver suffered cuts and other minor injuries.
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Rico's 10-year-old son Matthew suffered critical injuries and was hospitalized. The family's dog, Apollo, died in the collision. The three people riding in the pursued Honda were also hospitalized.
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No PIT/TVI maneuver, stop sticks or intentional police-vehicle contact immediately preceding the collision was identified in the court record. The later criminal proceedings produced substantial video evidence of the pursuit, including Kelly's body-camera and dashboard-camera recordings and surveillance-camera recordings from businesses along the route.
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Rico was born on 10/01/1992 in the State of Mexico, Mexico. She was married to Florencio and was the mother of Matthew. Her parents were Carlos and Maribel, and she had four sisters, Tania, Lizbeth, Vivian and Fatima. Her family buried her at Sacred Heart Cemetery in Rowlett after a funeral Mass at Good Shepherd Catholic Church.
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The pursued driver was convicted of murder. In September 2022, a Dallas County jury found him guilty after approximately 20 minutes of deliberation and sentenced him to life in prison. The prosecution was the first trial handled by the Dallas County District Attorney's newly created Vehicular Crimes Unit.
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The driver appealed his murder conviction, challenging the admission of several surveillance-camera recordings used at trial. On 02/20/2024, the Texas Fifth Court of Appeals rejected those challenges, modified an unrelated portion of the judgment concerning enhancement findings, and otherwise affirmed the murder conviction. The appellate court emphasized that properly admitted police body-camera and dashboard-camera recordings depicted the pursuit in greater detail than the challenged surveillance recordings.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
Garland Police Officer Ryan Kelly initiated the traffic stop and pursued after the driver fled. Kelly's body-camera and dashboard-camera recordings became important evidence in the subsequent murder prosecution. No verified prior fatal shooting, fatal pursuit, excessive-force finding, criminal charge, or significant disciplinary history involving Kelly was identified in the public records reviewed for this reconstruction.

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/crime/texas-woman-killed-son-injured-after-chase-suspect-runs-red-light-in-garland-police-say/287-ac07608a-8c9e-4031-aef2-bf5630799d2e
https://www.garlandpolice.com/m/newsflash/home/detail/2286
https://www.garlandtx.gov/DocumentCenter/View/10736/P-2021-09-61-Charges-Filed-Against-Man-who-Caused-Fatality-Crash-and-Injury-to-Child
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2021/09/07/man-faces-charges-after-garland-police-say-he-caused-fatal-crash-while-fleeing-officers/
https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/mother-killed-son-critically-injured-suspect-red-light-garland-texas/
https://www.univision.com/local/dallas-kuvn/esto-se-sabe-de-la-muerte-de-karla-rico-accidente-bobby-lee-murphy-garland
https://law.justia.com/cases/texas/fifth-court-of-appeals/2024/05-22-00950-cr.html

On 09/03/2021, an unidentified woman from Mexico died after falling approximately 20 feet from a cliff while attempting to escape U.S. Border Patrol custody near the Rio Grande River in Laredo.

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At approximately 6:00 a.m., a lone Border Patrol agent assigned to the Laredo South Station apprehended four migrants near the river, approximately 1.5 miles southeast of the Juarez-Lincoln Port of Entry. The agent handcuffed the four people together using three sets of handcuffs.

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According to CBP, while the agent was helping the group through a barbed-wire fence toward a Border Patrol vehicle, the woman slipped one hand out of the handcuffs and ran toward the Rio Grande.

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She ran approximately 50 feet in darkness before falling from a roughly 20-foot cliff. CBP reported that her head struck a log near the riverbank when she landed.

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The Border Patrol agent requested emergency medical assistance and secured the other three detained migrants in the patrol vehicle. Laredo Fire Department personnel responded and pronounced the woman dead at the scene.

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The woman was identified only as a Mexican citizen. Her name was not publicly released in the sources located for this update.

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The Laredo Police Department and Webb County Medical Examiner's Office investigated the death. U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Office of Professional Responsibility also opened a review, and the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General was notified.

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OFFICER BACKGROUND:

The Border Patrol agent who apprehended and handcuffed the woman has not been publicly identified.

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/migrant-woman-escape-custody-fall-death-Rio-Grande-16439846.php

https://sanangelolive.com/news/crime/2021-09-06/illegal-immigrant-woman-escapes-then-dies-fall-cliff

On 09/03/2021, 18-year-old Estevan Xavier Ramirez was shot and killed by Lake Worth Police Officer Jonathan Granado following a high-speed vehicle pursuit from Lake Worth into Fort Worth and a subsequent foot chase. Later litigation produced body-camera evidence, autopsy findings and testimony from another officer that materially contradicted Granado's account of the shooting.

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At approximately 2:06 a.m., Lake Worth Officer R. Watson attempted to stop a white Volkswagen Jetta after observing it traveling approximately 88 mph in a 65-mph zone on Interstate 820. The driver continued driving away and turned off the vehicle's lights. Granado joined Watson as a backup officer during the pursuit.

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Dispatch advised the officers that the Jetta was not stolen but had previously evaded another police agency and that its occupants were considered armed and dangerous. The pursuit traveled through Lake Worth and White Settlement into Fort Worth.

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The Jetta struck a curb after exiting Interstate 30 near Horne Street, damaging a tire. The vehicle eventually stopped in the 3400 block of Horne Street, and the people inside ran in different directions. Ramirez had been a passenger, not the pursued driver.

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Ramirez ran from the vehicle carrying a handgun. Watson pursued him on foot and ordered him to get on the ground. The later federal court record states that Ramirez dropped the gun during the encounter but immediately picked it back up. Watson briefly struggled with Ramirez before Ramirez continued running.

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Granado subsequently maintained that Ramirez was swinging the handgun in the direction of Watson and Granado as he ran and that he believed Ramirez presented an immediate deadly threat. Granado fired seven rounds.

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Evidence developed in the family's federal civil-rights lawsuit substantially disputed Granado's description of the shooting. Watson, who was closer to Ramirez, stated that Ramirez never pointed the gun toward him and never pointed it toward the officers while running away. Granado's body-camera footage likewise did not show Ramirez pointing or swinging the handgun toward either officer.

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The body-camera recording also captured Granado asking Watson immediately after the shooting, “did he have a gun?” The Fifth Circuit later concluded that a jury could view this contemporaneous question as evidence contradicting Granado's later assertion that he saw Ramirez armed before and during the shooting.

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The autopsy provided additional evidence inconsistent with Granado's account of an immediate frontal threat. Four of Granado's bullets struck Ramirez, including a fatal shot to the back of his head, and all four wound tracks traveled from back to front. Body-camera imagery showed Ramirez running away with his back toward both officers when Granado fired the fatal volley. Watson's service weapon remained holstered throughout the shooting.

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Ramirez collapsed face-first in the direction he had been running. He died from the gunshot wounds.

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The shooting was initially investigated by Fort Worth police. Lake Worth Police Chief J.T. Manoushagian publicly defended the shooting, saying video showed Ramirez with a gun and expressing confidence that the recordings would support the police account. The case was forwarded to the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office and a grand jury. Granado was not criminally charged.

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Ramirez's mother, Juanita Ramirez, subsequently filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against Granado and the City of Lake Worth alleging excessive force and inadequate training and supervision. The litigation directly challenged the police claim that Ramirez pointed or swung the gun toward officers and alleged that Granado shot Ramirez repeatedly in the back as he ran away.

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In August 2024, U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman granted summary judgment to Granado, finding his use of deadly force objectively reasonable and granting him qualified immunity. The case was dismissed with prejudice.

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Ramirez's family appealed. On 12/10/2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed the summary judgment for Granado. The appellate majority held that the conflicting evidence—including Watson's statement, Granado's body-camera footage, Granado's immediate question about whether Ramirez had a gun, and the back-to-front bullet trajectories—created factual disputes that could not properly be resolved in Granado's favor at summary judgment.

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The Fifth Circuit concluded that a reasonable jury could find that Ramirez did not point or swing the gun toward the officers and could disbelieve Granado's assertion that he perceived Ramirez as presenting the immediate deadly threat he later described. The ruling returned the excessive-force claim for further proceedings rather than clearing Granado of civil liability.

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Granado sought rehearing. On 02/20/2026, the Fifth Circuit denied panel rehearing and rehearing en banc. Granado subsequently petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court. The civil litigation therefore remained active in 2026.

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OFFICER BACKGROUND:

Jonathan Granado had been involved in a serious previous use-of-force incident less than a year before killing Ramirez. In November 2020, Granado attempted to stop motorcyclist Dustin Bates because his license plate was obscured and Granado believed the motorcycle might be stolen. Bates continued driving away and later ran on foot.

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Granado pursued Bates in his police SUV and struck him with the vehicle. Dashcam video documented the collision. Bates suffered a fractured spine, three fractured ribs and a broken leg.

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Lake Worth suspended Granado for two weeks and assigned him to administrative duty while the 2020 incident was investigated. An outside investigation characterized the collision as accidental, and a grand jury declined to indict Granado. Lake Worth nevertheless required Granado to undergo additional training and make a presentation to other officers about what he had learned and what he could have done better.

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Bates filed a federal excessive-force lawsuit against Granado in January 2022, alleging Granado deliberately ran him down with the police SUV. The lawsuit brought renewed public scrutiny to Granado and resulted in Lake Worth Chief Manoushagian publicly confirming that Granado was also the previously unnamed officer who killed Ramirez.

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Granado resigned from the Lake Worth Police Department in November 2021, approximately two months after killing Ramirez and several weeks before the criminal investigation into the Ramirez shooting was forwarded to the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office.

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/lake-worth-police-fatally-shoot-1-person-after-pursuit-ends-in-fort-worth-police/2733758/

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/crime/article253972498.html

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2021/09/03/lake-worth-police-fatally-shoot-armed-18-year-old-after-chase-into-fort-worth/

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/courts/2022/10/18/family-of-fort-worth-teen-killed-by-lake-worth-officer-sues-city-former-cop/

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2022/01/25/former-lake-worth-officer-at-center-of-excessive-force-lawsuit-also-fatally-shot-teen/

https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/dustin-bates-lawsuit-filed-against-former-lake-worth-texas-police-officer-jonathan-granado-striking-unarmed-man/

https://www.fox4news.com/news/former-lake-worth-officer-facing-lawsuit-also-involved-in-deadly-police-shooting

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/texas/txndce/4%3A2022cv00930/368853/48/

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca5/24-10755/24-10755-2025-12-10.html

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca5/24-10755/24-10755-2026-02-20.html

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25/25-1338/409556/20260521160853426_Grando%20v%20Ramirez%20-%20Petition.pdf

On 09/01/2021, 39-year-old Omar Hernandez Lazano was shot and killed by five Harris County Precinct 1 deputies and Houston Police Officer J. White after an approximately 20-minute police pursuit ended at 1246 Mitchell Road in north Houston. Later reporting sometimes shortened his name to Omar Hernandez.
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The incident began with a reported family disturbance at a church on Witcher Lane. Police said Lazano rammed several vehicles in the church parking lot and left before officers arrived. Authorities subsequently received a report that the same vehicle had been seen near Mitchell Road.
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Harris County Precinct 1 deputies later encountered Lazano driving a black Volkswagen Atlas SUV the wrong way on Hardy Road. Deputies initially suspected an impaired driver and attempted a traffic stop. During the pursuit, police checked the vehicle and determined that it had been reported stolen.
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Lazano continued driving away while Precinct 1 deputies pursued. Houston police joined the pursuit after deputies requested assistance. The chase lasted approximately 20 minutes and returned to the 1200 block of Mitchell Road.
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Lazano drove into the front yard of a residence. A Precinct 1 sergeant positioned a marked patrol vehicle to block the driveway. Police said Lazano rapidly reversed the SUV into the house with enough force that the rear portion of the vehicle entered the structure.
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As deputies surrounded the SUV, Lazano drove forward. Video released after the shooting showed the SUV striking a Precinct 1 deputy and dragging him approximately 20 feet before crashing into the marked patrol vehicle blocking the driveway.
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Five Precinct 1 deputies and HPD Officer J. White then fired at Lazano while he remained in the driver's seat. Lazano was struck multiple times and pronounced dead at the scene.
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The gunfire also struck a Precinct 1 sergeant in the left leg with a ricochet. Body-camera footage captured the wounded sergeant falling and asking who was shooting him while other deputies yelled for the gunfire to stop. The deputy struck by Lazano's SUV survived after being transported by Life Flight in critical condition.
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Houston police subsequently released body-camera and Ring doorbell recordings showing the crash into the residence, deputies converging on the SUV, the SUV striking and dragging the deputy, and the ensuing police gunfire.
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The Houston Police Department Special Investigations Unit and Harris County District Attorney's Office investigated the fatal shooting. HPD also identified White as the Houston officer who fired. The five Precinct 1 deputies who fired were not named in the public HPD release.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
Houston Police Officer J. White was the only shooting officer publicly identified in the records located for this update. The five Harris County Precinct 1 deputies who fired were not publicly named.

https://www.khou.com/article/news/crime/chase-north-houston-officer-involved-shooting/285-fb3c21b3-11fe-41f7-81f4-3782e83b61db
https://www.houstontx.gov/police/nr/2021/sep/nr090221-7.htm
https://abc13.com/post/officer-involved-shooting-deputy-ran-over-bodycam-video-ring-doorbell/11068562/
https://www.fox26houston.com/news/bodycam-video-released-from-officer-involved-shooting-where-harris-co-constable-was-run-over

On 08/31/2021, shortly before 1:30 p.m., Houston Police Department officers responded to the 7100 block of Hillcroft Avenue after receiving a report that a 51-year-old man was assaulting his wife. When officers arrived, the man had already left the location in a gray Honda Accord. Police alleged that the woman suffered injuries during the assault and transported her to an area hospital for treatment.
According to HPD, the man drove north on Hillcroft Avenue after leaving the domestic disturbance. In the 7200 block, he lost control of the Honda and struck the rear of a black Ford F-450 tow truck. The crash occurred only about one block from the location where police had responded to the domestic violence call.
Emergency personnel transported the man to Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, where he died from his injuries. The Ford driver was not injured. HPD's Vehicular Crimes Division assigned Sgt. P. Lee and Officer D. Ortega to investigate the fatal crash under incident number 117620921-Q. Those officers were crash investigators and should not be identified as officers involved in the preceding encounter.
Contemporary reporting described the man as “fleeing from police,” but HPD's own official crash report does not state that officers were actively pursuing the Honda when it crashed. It states that officers responded to the domestic violence report, found that the man had fled in the Honda, and that he subsequently crashed on Hillcroft. The available evidence therefore does not establish a continuous police vehicle pursuit strongly enough to classify this as a standard police-chase fatality.
HPD did not publicly identify the 51-year-old man in its initial release, stating that identification was pending notification of his family. A search of subsequent indexed reporting and HPD material did not locate a reliable later public identification.

https://abc13.com/man-killed-crash-assaulting-wife-husband-dead/10992650/
https://www.houstontx.gov/police/nr/2021/aug/nr210831-6.htm