Christa Kay Markwell was shot by a Lubbock, Texas, police officer on November 15, 2020, after advancing toward police while holding a hatchet. The custodial death report prepared by the Lubbock Police Department shows that Ms. Markwell was transported to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

One of several controversial Texas police shootings in a particular Texas county resulted in the death of a 42-year-old man. A newspaper account described what happened and a summary follows: 

• The 42-year-old suspect was holding a gun to a woman’s head as they sat in a parked car. The suspect, at one point, stepped out of the vehicle. He then got back into his car and began to drive. Nearby officers fired into the suspect’s car. The suspect was killed, and no gun was found in his vehicle. One of the officers stated that his fear was that the car would be used as a deadly weapon against other officers. The woman in the story apparently escaped the scene safely.

A few months later in the same police department, two officers were involved in the deadly shooting of a man in a mental health crisis who was holding a knife.

In that county in 2019, the following describes another event that, like the others, did not result in any convictions or punishment of police officers for misconduct:

• A 40-year-old suspect fled from police on foot after crashing his vehicle. An officer engaged his taser. The suspect, who was allegedly repeatedly shocked, insisted that he could not breathe. He died in the encounter.

See Part 1 and Part 2 to learn more.

Suggesting that any persons or entities have engaged in wrongdoing is never intended on this website. Helping inmates detained in county jails in Texas is the purpose of posts on this site.

–Guest Contributor