Christian Taylor, who was about to start his sophomore year on the football field for Angelo State University in Texas, was shot dead by a police officer who was still technically in training. Police were called to a car dealership about an alleged burglary when the shooting happened.
@IamJoeSports
Officers were dispatched to a burglary in progress about 1 a.m. at the Classic Buick GMC dealership on the Interstate 20 service road, east of Collins Street, in Arlington, Texas, said Sgt. Paul Rodriguez, a police spokesman.
A security company had called 911 after observing the suspect on camera outside the business.
Rodriguez said police arrived to find that the suspect had used a vehicle to crash into the showroom through the dealership’s front glass.
“The officers went and confronted him. There was an altercation. An officer discharged his weapon and struck the suspect,” Rodriguez said.
The suspect, who was pronounced dead at the scene, was not armed with a weapon, Rodriguez said.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office identified him Friday afternoon as 19-year-old Christian Taylor.
The officer, identified by the department as 49-year-old Brad Miller, had just graduated from the police academy in March. He has been in field training and working under the supervision of a police training officer, the department said.
Miller has been placed on administrative leave, routine in deadly force incidents.
“We’re having two independent investigations — a criminal and administrative,” Rodriguez said. “As an agency, we take the loss of any human life as serious, but we owe it to our community to conduct a clear and transparent investigation to determine what exactly took place.”
Clyde Fuller, Taylor’s great uncle, described his great nephew as a good man and talented football player who was about to return to college. He said he has many unanswered questions and doesn’t believe Taylor was burglarizing the dealership as police suspected.
“He was a good kid. I don’t see him stealing no car or nothing like that,” Fuller said.
“I think something is going on that somebody is lying about,” Fuller said. “…They say he’s burglarizing the place by running up in there? Nuh-uh. Something doesn’t sound right.”
Rodriguez said the department is in the process of implementing a pilot program for use of body cameras by officers but that no such cameras are currently in use.
There are so many questions about this story. Why would the kid, who is on a football scholarship, decide to try and steal a car from a dealership in the middle of the night by crashing through the doors?? Wouldn’t he try to be quiet, let along stick around long enough for multiple police officers to show up?
There are cameras inside the dealership and hopefully they help explain the story better because unfortunately as usual, we only have the police version of events. Officer Miller allegedly shot Taylor after a confrontation but how serious of a confrontation could it have ben with an unarmed kid in the presence of multiple officers.
This is just sad and I hope we get to the bottom of things because it feels very sketchy.
