According to the custodial death report filed by the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department in Rusk, Texas, Justin Lewis Pegues fled from police in a pre-custodial incident. As a result of the ensuing activity on January 14, 2021, Mr. Pegues was shot and died.

The following continues with findings from a report on police-involved shootings in Texas.

“Incident Cause” Categories

Reports on police-involved shootings are separated into five “incident cause” categories, those being:

1. Traffic Stop
2. Emergency/Request for Assistance
3. Executing a Warrant
4. Barricade/Hostage/Other Emergency
5. Other

In 638 reports, police-involved shootings have a single cause; this constitutes 84.2% of all incidents.

More than one cause is listed in 57 reports of police-involved shootings.

At 50.9%, more than half of the incidents are listed with Emergency/Request for Assistance as the cause.

Statistics on Civilians Shot in Police-Involved Shootings

In 2019, there was a 25.9% increase in the total number of citizens (civilians) shot in a police-involved shooting as compared to such incidents that occurred in 2017. As compared with 2018, the increase was 14.4%.

When the number of civilian shootings is analyzed according to severity type–meaning injury or death– the data indicates that each year, the number of civilians who died as a result of a police shooting increased.

The number of citizens’ deaths and injuries resulting from police-involved shooting incidents for each of the years included in the study follows:

• 2016: 83 civilian deaths and 93 civilian injuries; the survival rate for civilians was 52.8%
• 2017: 83 civilian deaths and 80 civilian injuries; the survival rate for civilians was 49.1%
• 2018: 102 civilian deaths and 71 civilian injuries; the survival rate for civilians was 41.0%
• 2019: 108 civilian deaths and 77 civilian injuries; the survival rate for civilians was 41.6%

See Part 1 and Part 2 of this three-part series.

Implying that any person or entity has been a participant in wrongs is never an intention on this website. Helping inmates in Texas county jails is the purpose of posts on this site.

–Guest Contributor