Family of Man Shot and Killed by Fort Worth Police Officer Loses Case in Federal Court

A United States district judge in the Fort Worth Division of the Northern District of Texas recently granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment against relatives of a man shot and killed by a newly-trained Fort Worth police officer. In May 2013, just before 1:00 a.m., an alarm security company received a notice of a burglar-alarm activation in Fort Worth, Texas. The security company was unable to reach the woman who it expected to reach at the residence and thereafter contacted one of the woman’s neighbors. The neighbor told the alarm company that the woman had recently undergone a medical procedure, and the neighbor further asked that the alarm company send someone to check on the woman. The alarm company then contacted the Fort Worth Police Department and provided the address for the burglar-alarm notification.

The Fort Worth Police Department dispatched two newly-trained police officers to respond to the burglar alarm. However, rather than going to the correct address, the police officers went to an address on the same street which had a different last number. One of the police officers went to the back of the wrong house, in the middle of the night, and ultimately shot and killed the resident of the home.

The purpose of this post is not to provide all facts, or to allege that anyone did anything wrong, but rather just to provide a short summary of a portion of what occurred. In fact, there is a dispute about what occurred. The Plaintiffs allege that the occupant of the home laid his gun on a car’s hood after being told by a police officer to drop the gun. One or more police officers alleged that the occupant of the home actually pointed the gun at the police officer just before the police officer shot and killed the occupant.

The district court’s opinion is lengthy, and it addresses what is virtually is always addressed in police shooting cases – qualified immunity. In fact, it seems that the vast majority of police shooting cases are dismissed based on that defense. This is unfortunate, because due to the confluence of Texas law and federal law, families may be left with no remedy when their loved ones are shot and killed by police officers.

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