Roy Jones told a local television station, KBTX-TV, he had taken his aunt, Pearlie Golden, to renew her driver's licence on Tuesday, but she was denied after failing her test. As Jones took his aunt back to her home, he could tell she was upset, he said.
Jones said he was later sitting with his aunt on her front porch when Golden demanded her keys back. He refused, so Golden went into the house and got her .38-calibre handgun. Jones ran into the house and called police, he told the station.
Jones says Golden fired two shots into the ground when an officer told her to drop her gun.
Hearne police have said in a statement that Golden "brandished a gun" when officer Stephen Stem arrived. A preliminary autopsy shows Golden was shot twice and grazed by a third bullet, the Robertson county district attorney, Coty Siegert, has said.
The Hearne city council will hold a special public session about the fatal police shooting on Saturday afternoon.
Hearne police have declined to comment beyond the statement issued this week. Stem has been placed on administrative leave, and the Texas Rangers are investigating the shooting of Golden, also known as "Miss Sulie".
Siegert told the station that because the case is still under investigation, he could neither confirm nor deny that Golden fired her gun.
Dozens of protesters marched to police headquarters on Thursday and were met there by Mayor Ruben Gomez, who said he will recommend that Stem be fired during Saturday's city council meeting.
"It's a loss of confidence in the community. We can't have an officer the citizens have lost confidence in," Gomez said.
However, Stem's attorney, Robert McCabe, told the station that he believes his client's actions were justified under the circumstances and called the mayor's comments inappropriate and unprofessional.
"He probably knows less facts about what occurred than I do," McCabe said.
Source The Guardian.com and Associated Press
No comments:
Post a Comment