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DALLAS (AP) – A black man who was shot and killed by a white police officer in a small town in east Texas offered the officer a handshake and asked if he was “okay,” when the officer arrived at a convenience store to verify issued a report of a fight, according to a court document released Wednesday.
Wolfe City Police Officer Shaun Lucas has been charged with murder on the weekend of the death of Jonathan Price, 31, whose funeral will be held Saturday on the high school football field in the city of about 1,500 people located about 70 miles (113 kilometers). ) northeast of Dallas.
According to the affidavit, written by a Texas Ranger, the entire interaction between the two on October 3 was captured with a body camera. That footage has not been published.
The affidavit said that when Lucas arrived at the convenience store due to a “possible fight” he was greeted by Price, who asked the officer “are you okay” several times and extended his hand in a handshake gesture. Price apologized for the broken glass on the floor and told the officer that someone had tried to “wrap” me.
The affidavit says Lucas thought Price was drunk and tried to stop him. Price said “I can’t be stopped” as Lucas grabbed his arm and used verbal commands. When Lucas pulled out a stun gun, Price started to walk away.
After Lucas deployed the stun gun, which was not entirely effective, Price walked over to him and appeared to reach out to grasp the end of the stun gun, according to the affidavit. The affidavit said Lucas then shot four times, hitting Price in the upper torso. Price was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
In a statement Monday announcing that Lucas had been charged, the Texas Rangers said Price “resisted in a non-threatening posture and began to walk away,” and that the officer’s actions were “unreasonable.”
Lucas remained incarcerated Wednesday on a $ 1 million bond.
Lucas’s attorney, John Snider, has said that the officer “only fired his gun in accordance with Texas law when confronted by an aggressive assailant attempting to take his” stun gun.
Lee Merritt, a Dallas attorney representing Price’s family, said on Facebook that he was told that Price raised his hand and tried to explain what was going on when the officer arrived. Merritt wrote that after the stun gun was deployed, Price’s body “convulsed from the electrical current, they ‘sensed a threat’ and shot him dead. ‘”
Police have not released any details about the reported fight that led Lucas to the convenience store, but Price’s family and friends said the former college football player had been involved in a domestic disturbance.
His family and friends said Price, a Wolfe City employee, was well known in the community. Price, who had played soccer for Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, was a personal trainer and bodybuilder with a dream of starting his own gym.
Tony Coleman, an Oklahoma City attorney who grew up in Wolfe City, said the community always comes together when someone dies, but that the death of Price, known for his bright smile and enthusiasm for fitness, “has touched the community of in a way that has never been touched before. “
Coleman, who represents Price’s family along with Merritt, said there have been no issues related to race in the united community.
“I have as many white friends as I have black friends,” said Coleman, who is black. “In fact, I probably have more white friends than black because the population disparity is so great.”
According to the United States Census Bureau, 71% of its residents are white, 14% are black, and 13% are Hispanic.
“We all spend the night at each other’s houses, we come to the aid of others when the need for help arises,” Coleman said.
Lucas, 22, had been with the Wolfe City Police Department for just under six months when the shooting occurred, according to records from the Texas Law Enforcement Commission. His prior law enforcement experience had been working as a jailer with the Hunt County Sheriff’s Office for approximately five months.
“He was an outsider, this guy was,” Coleman said. “For the community, they feel betrayed in a sense. That is the feeling I have of everyone because it was someone who was supposed to serve and protect the community, not kill us.
