A white police officer accused of murder in the deadly shooting of a black man at a gas station in Wolfe City, Texas has been fired.
Wolfe City said in a news release that the officer, Sha Lucan Lucas, 22, was fired Thursday for “serious violations of city and police department policies.” Lucas was one of six officers in Wolfe City, about 70 miles northeast of Dallas, all white.
Lucas had been under pressure since April. Prior to that, he worked as a jailer for the Hunt County Sheriff’s Department for five months. Lucas was arrested Monday and charged with murder in the deadly shooting of Jonathan Price on Saturday night, 31, at a gas station in Texas.
Mayor Shion Scott and the City Council on Thursday expressed gratitude, saying the news release said gatherings in support of the spirit had been “peaceful in a tight community.” He said he was involved in the death of Shock Price and the events of the past week.
“We’ve also asked that you remember our city employees, many of whom worked with both Mr. Price and Mr. Lucas as we finally begin the work of delivering massive healing to our city and community,” the release said.
Lucas responded to a call about a fight at a quick check gas station on Santa Fe Street, the Texas Ranger Division said Monday.
According to Price’s family lawyer, Lee Merritt, Lucas tried to detain Price, who intervened after seeing the “man who attacked the woman.”
The Texas Rangers said Price “resisted in a reckless manner and started walking” and that Lucas then fired a shotgun “before releasing his service weapon striking price”.
Bhav was taken to hospital, where he died.
“Preliminary investigations indicate that Officer Lucas’ actions were not objectively justified,” the Texas Rangers said.
Lucas’s attorneys had previously said he had dropped his weapon under Texas law only when he was facing an assailant who was trying to take his “stun gun.”
In a statement Tuesday, Robert Rogers, one of Lucas’s attorneys, said Price “did not claim to be an unresolved, innocent party” when Lucas arrived at the scene, as Merit suggests.
On Thursday, another Lucas attorney, John Snyder, said, “Unfortunately, there is no appeal process available for Mr. Lucas to challenge the employment decision.”
“Mr. Lucas acted within policy and law throughout this whole incident,” Snyder said. “He tried to detain Mr. Price and there was physical resistance.”
Snyder said Lucas only dropped his pistol “as a last resort”.
Lucas is in jail on 1 million bail.
Price played football in 2008 at Hardin-Simmons University, a private Baptist college in Abilene, Texas.
“Jonathan Price deserves justice on the basis of his humanity alone,” Merritt said Monday before Lucas was arrested. “He was a great man. He was a mentor. He was a hero of the homeland. He was an inspiring speaker. He worked with children. He did all the things that deserve praise.”
“But it’s not because he deserves justice. He deserves justice because he was a human citizen who didn’t break the law shot by a police officer.”
