Grand Jury Does Not Charge Friendswood Police Officer in 2016 Fatal Shooting
On November 29, 2016, at about 3:10 p.m., Friendswood police officers responded to a call about a theft. It turned out to be the theft of a beer from a convenience store. Police saw a man who appeared to be the suspect walking south on S Friendswood Drive. The suspect was described as a white male between 45 and 60 years of age. Police told the suspect to stop for purposes of conducting a field investigation. The officer says the suspect was holding a box cutter with the blade open, and he refused to comply when told to stop. The suspect then allegedly lunged at the officer with the open box cutter.
The officer said that he was in fear for his life, and the police officer then allegedly shot the suspect four times. The suspect was transported to a nearby hospital, where he later died from his injuries. The suspect was Toby Cummins. A grand jury had access to all of the police video recordings and audio and all witness statements connected to this police shooting. They decided this week that no criminal charges will be made against the police officer in connection with Cummins’ death.
The videos connected to this incident were just released on Wednesday of this week, May 10, 2017. They were not released previously, to the frustration of Cummins’ family and many in the public. According to Kelly Shannon, executive director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, who spoke of the decision at that time, the city was not obligated to release the videos during an investigation. He referred to the public release of the traffic stop of Sandra Bland as a reason the police department was hesitate to release videos of the Cummins shooting.
Read more about this story in this continuing series.
–Guest Contributor
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