FORT WORTH, Texas _ A Texas grand jury has handed up an indictment in the case of an Arlington police officer who shot and killed a man who attempted to flee from a traffic stop in September.
The Tarrant County grand jury began meeting on Thursday, according to sources. A decision was reached on Wednesday afternoon.
Officer Bau Tran shot and killed O'Shae Terry, 24, after another officer stopped Terry on Sept. 1. He was indicted Wednesday on a charge of criminally negligent homicide.
Terry's family attorney, Lee Merritt, was scheduled a hold a news conference Wednesday to discuss the case. Merritt has previously said that Terry "did some things wrong that day" but none of those things should have ended in a death sentence.
"He said he had marijuana in the car, marijuana was later found in the car," Merritt said in October. "He had an expired tag. He pulled off from a stop that he shouldn't have pulled off from. We expect law enforcement officers to come into contact with people who are breaking the law, and this was a situation where O'Shae made several mistakes. None of those mistakes should have been fatal."
Since the shooting, Tran has been on restricted duties with his badge and gun removed. He didn't have direct contact with the community in this role, Arlington Lt. Christopher Cook has said. Now, Tran is on leave pending the conclusion of the department's administrative investigation.
"The Grand Jury's decision, irrespective of the outcome, is viewed as an additional factual piece of information to consider by those responsible for the administrative investigation of this incident," Arlington police said in a news release. "We anticipate that the outcome of the administrative investigation will be concluded within the next few weeks."
Randy Moore, Tran's attorney, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in October that he believed the officer was acting within the law.
About 10 minutes into the stop, Terry started to roll up his windows. Tran grabbed the top of the passenger side window with his left hand, ordered Terry to stop, stepped onto the foot rail, put his right arm inside the vehicle and then brought it back out to reach for his gun, the video shows.
He shot into the vehicle at least four times.
Dashcam footage from the shooting shows the car's back lights lit up at 13:55:27. At 13:55:44, the car moved forward and about a second later, the first of at least four shots are fired.
Asked why the officer didn't let the car drive off since they had Terry's name, Moore said, "There's an inherent flaw in that opinion" and said that if Tran allowed Terry to leave the scene, a pursuit could have started or a crash may have happened.
"He was shot because the officer felt his life was in danger during the commission of the felony," Moore said.
Terry was stopped by Officer Julie Herlihy because the temporary tag on the SUV he was driving showed it to be expired.
Tran responded to the traffic stop after Herlihy said she smelled marijuana, and told Terry she was going to search the vehicle, according to video footage released by the department. Once Tran arrived to the stop, he waited on the passenger side of the car while Herlihy went back to her cruiser.
That's when Terry tried to leave the stop.
Terry's passenger, Terrence Harmon, 24, was not injured.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office ruled Terry's death a homicide from multiple gunshot wounds.
