A former Hardin-Simmons University football player was shot dead by police after intervening in a fight between a man and a woman at a gas station in Texas, his family said.
Jonathan Price, 31, was shot Saturday night at the Quick Check gas station on Santa Fe Street in Wolfe City, 70 miles east of Las Vegas.
In a statement posted on its Facebook page on Sunday, the city said the officer involved in the shooting was put on administrative leave pending an investigation by the Texas Rangers. The city has not mentioned the price or identified the officer. It also did not say where the shooting took place.
“The police investigation shows a lack of transparency that we are all used to,” Lee Merritt, a lawyer for the spirit family, said Monday.
The Texas Rangers confirmed Monday by spokeswoman Lonnie Hashel that they are investigating the shooting at the request of Wolfe City Police. Hashell declined to comment further.
Price’s family and his attorney said they wanted the Hunt County District Attorney to convict the officer of murder and release surveillance video of the incident.
“We want to see a video of the station, and we want to see the official police report, which we have not yet seen,” Merritt said at a news conference at the gas station on Monday. “We want the official name, identity and arrest of that officer.”
Neither Wolf City Police nor the Texas Rangers released details of the shooting. In an Instagram post on Sunday, Merritt said the incident began when Price, a man named Black, saw a man attacking a woman at a gas station and intervened.
“I was told when the police arrived, they reached out and tried to explain what was happening,” Merritt said in the post. “Police fired at the harasser and when his body was electrocuted, they understood the ‘threat’ and shot him dead.”
Merritt said Monday that Texas Rangers director Steven McCroy told him he had seen a video of the shooting and was “not happy with what he saw” because of the officer’s actions. Merritt said gas station owners have voluntarily refused to turn on surveillance video. He said he would go through the legal process to get it back if they did not. A gas station employee declined to comment when reached by phone, and a Quick Check spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.
Bhavna’s father, Jr. Bhav, broke down in tears on Monday as he said he had raised his son to “do the right thing”.
He was standing on his own two feet when he saw his son die on Saturday and said he spoke briefly to the officer who shot him. He said he asked the officer why he shot the price.
“He didn’t say,” Price said. “He said, ‘Come back, he’ll tell me later.'” Price said. “And haven’t come here since. It’s Monday.”
Merritt said Price’s mother, Marcella Lewis, wanted to be there on Monday, but could not because she was “overwhelmed.” The family was mourning and arranging the funeral.
Lewis told Dallas-based WFAA-TV that when she learned that her only son had been shot, she ran to the gas station.
“They won’t let me go near my baby,” he said. “I just wanted to hold his hand. They wouldn’t let me do that.”
“They took my son away from me,” he said, drying the station. “They took my baby.”
Price’s sister, April Lewis, told the WFAA that her brother was well respected.
“Everyone loved Jonathan. Everyone,” he said. “Black, white, Mexican, it doesn’t matter. He loves everyone. Everyone loves him.”
Bhavani’s mother and sister did not immediately return requests for an interview on Monday.
Merit and others in the community said Price was known as a homegrown hero, motivational speaker, personal trainer, athlete, community advocate and mentor working with children.
“He did all the things that deserve praise,” Merritt said. “But that’s why he deserves justice.”
Merritt said he deserved justice because he was a human being who “did not break the law and was killed by a police officer.”
“Everyone in this community will echo that Jonathan shouldn’t have to do this because of his character,” Merritt said. “However, this should not happen to anyone. And it often happens to unarmed black men, especially in North Texas.
“So we unfortunately can’t divorce the race issue out of it,” he added.
Jesse Berlson, head football coach at Hardin-Simmons University, a private Baptist college in Abilene, Texas. Tweeted Sunday: “We lost one of our own in a terrible situation. Jonathan Price was a terrible young man during his time with Cowboy Football. He was with us only briefly in 2008 but was always a Cowboy. Pray for Jonathan’s comfort and peace. Family. #Cowboybrother“
Will Middlebrooks, a former third baseman of Major-League baseball Texas Rangers, said he grew up with Price and talked about their friendship in a video posted on Facebook on Sunday.
“Jonathan has been a close friend of mine since he was a child. We came together, went to elementary school together,” Middlebrooks said, adding that Price was very close to his family. “We know how special that man was. And that’s a really tough loss.”
“This is a really, really tough loss for all of us on so many different levels,” Middlebrooks said.
She said the “last thing” she wanted to see was Wolf City, “which caused it to fall apart.”
“I understand you’re angry. I understand you’re sad and broken. We’re all the same,” Middlebrooks said. “Most of the people in that city are behind Jonathan and everything about him and who he is and who he is as a person. And the legacy he will leave.”
Middlebrooks said Price would not like Wolfe City, “because it would burn people and ruin people’s businesses because they were behind it.”
“This was the one person who committed this crime,” Middlebrooks said. “And I pray that justice will be done soon. And I pray that this will be handled properly.”
Merritt said the head of the Texas Rangers expressed concern about social unrest during his conversation Monday but that spirit should remain concerned about the family.
“If this community, if the city authorities, if the Texas Rangers, if law enforcement is concerned with the peace of this family, they can take a step in the right direction, treating the gunman in the leg.” Like criminal suspects, ”he said.
In June, Price said in a Facebook post that police should have detained him at the time of the speeding, pending citations, old registration and scattering in the red light. He said he was let go by two white police officers after passing a sobriety test in Wiley, a city in Texas, which he said was “considered very racist.” He said, however, that he had never received “this kind of energy release” from the police.
The post concludes: “Don’t mind the black life, but don’t forget about yourself or your experiences through growth / ‘awakening’.”
