Texas DPS trooper shoots 17-year-old after traffic stop near Atascocita
A Texas DPS trooper shot a 17-year-old who was on his way to the dentist with his mom driving following a traffic stop in the Atascocita area Friday.
It happened on Will Clayton Parkway westbound at Village Tower Drive at about 11 a.m. Family members say they believe the trooper pulled over the mother and son because the tint on her car windows was too dark.
After they were pulled over, Andrea Jasmine, the teen’s aunt, said she got a call from him.
“He called me and he said, ‘Can you come and get me?'” recalled Jasmine. “I heard one of the police say, ‘What are you doing?'”
Jasmine says next thing she knew, she heard shots over the phone. “I heard a whole bunch of hollering and screaming and pow pow pow pow pow.”
DPS spokesperson Lt. Craig Cummings said authorities are still investigating what made the trooper pull them over in the first place. He also would not specify whether the teen actually pulled the gun out, but did say the found a gun on scene after the teen was shot.
“I don’t want to get to a point of making assumptions,” said Lt. Cummings. “We can say he reached toward his waist, and a weapon was found where the suspect fell to the ground.”
Cummings said during the traffic stop, there were indicators of drug activity in the car. That prompted the trooper to get both mother and son out of the car, and conduct a patdown. When the trooper felt a weapon, the teen began running. Cummings said the teen ran for about 200 yards before he allegedly turned around and moved his hand toward his waist. That’s when the trooper shot the teen in the upper part of his body.
But Jasmine says she doesn’t buy the law enforcement version of events.
“I don’t know nothing about no gun. And if he did have a gun, from what I was told, he was running away from the police, and the area,” she said.
DPS says the entire incident was captured on a body-worn camera. Jasmine says she wants to see the video too, because her nephew now has multiple gunshot wounds.
“I’m very angry, I’m very angry because I believe there’s a certain way you should be able to handle things. And when people try to get away, you shoot him in the back and neck? That’s what you do?”
The Texas Rangers are investigating if the teen did, in fact, pull out the gun or point it at the trooper.
Only one trooper was involved, which is customary for the agency, Cummings explained. The trooper will be placed on administrative leave, which is protocol.
Jasmine says her nephew will undergo surgery at Texas Children’s Hospital. She says her sister, the teen’s mom, was released Friday evening.