Will Judges Elevate Cop Mantra, "I Feared for My Life," Over a Black Woman's Plea for Mercy, "Im Pregnant" ? A Baytown Cop Fatally Shot Pamela Turner from Several Ft Away but Court May Dismiss Suit
/From [HERE] A panel of Fifth Circuit judges appeared skeptical Friday of a civil suit brought by the family of a Black woman who in 2019 was fatally shot by a Baytown, Texas, police officer.
The incident occurred at a parking lot of an apartment complex where both Turner and Officer Juan Delacruz (of the Baytown Police Department), were living at the time during an attempt to arrest her for outstanding warrants.
Video footage of the shooting was captured by a bystander[4] and also by the officer's bodycam. Police stated the officer was attempting to arrest her for outstanding warrants when she used his Taser on him; at trial, Texas Ranger Lt. Eric Lopez testified more specifically that she used it on Delacruz’s genitals in the course of resisting arrest. The bodycam showed the struggle between the two prior to the shooting.
Turner's family said that the woman had suffered from schizophrenia and that Delacruz was aware of it; a neighbor also said that Turner was mentally unstable, that Delacruz was aware of it, and that he "had arrested her many times" and had used his Taser on her on the most recent occasion.
During the encounter, Turner said to the officer “You’re actually harassing me” and “I’m actually walking to my house”. Just prior to the shooting, she yelled out, “I’m pregnant.”
Although Police explained that she was not in fact pregnant and racist suspect media parrot the cops statement - both miss the point. When she yelled out she was pregnant she was asking for mercy, trying to get the white cop to not shoot her. It is another way of saying ‘please don’t shoot.’ It is also a more plausible explanation than the media’s inference that ‘she said she was pregnant because she’s crazy.’
In 2020, a Harris County grand jury charged De La Cruz with aggravated assault by a public servant, but he was ultimately found not guilty.
In December 2023, a Texas federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by Turner's family against De La Cruz, the city of Baytown and the owners of the apartment complex, finding that De La Cruz could have reasonably believed Turner posed a threat to his life.
Lawyers for De La Cruz and the family argued Friday before a three-judge Fifth Circuit panel over whether the judge was correct in dismissing the claims against the officer.
De La Cruz's attorney William Helfand said Turner had grabbed De La Cruz's Taser and shocked him with it, but Shelby White, an attorney representing the family, said the evidence does not conclusively show this. Even if that was the case, White argued that at the time of the shooting Turner was on the ground several feet from De La Cruz and therefore no longer posed a reasonable threat to him.
"The two fighters are on different sides of the ring, and then he pulls his gun and shoots her. And you can't do that," White said.
White said that even if, as De La Cruz had testified, Turner had been holding the Taser when he shot her, the Taser prongs had already been deployed, so the device could only have been used in drive-stun mode, meaning the only way Turner could have used the Taser against De La Cruz at that point would be by physically touching him with it. White argued this meant Turner could not have posed a threat to De La Cruz from several feet away.
But U.S. Circuit Judge Stuart Duncan seemed skeptical of this argument.
"You want us to write an opinion that would say, if someone an officer is trying to arrest takes control of his taser, the officer cannot use deadly force unless she's close enough to him to tase him in drive-stun mode?" Duncan, a Donald Trump appointee, asked, adding, "I just want to understand what rule of law we would have in this circuit that guides police officers in their interaction with people who take their Tasers away."
Helfand argued De La Cruz had a reasonable belief that Turner posed a danger to him when he shot her.
"An officer is trained, but an officer is also a human being, and sometimes folks disregard the normal human traits of pain and fear which exist when somebody is in a fight and being shocked and feeling threatened as if they're going to be killed," Helfand said. "And Officer De La Cruz had every not only right but reason to believe that that's what was going to happen to him."