Dallas officer charged with assault in the shooting death of pregnant woman whose family was 'hoping for a murder charge'
By Associated Press and Jessica Finn
Daily Mail
June 23, 2017
A grand jury has recommended an aggravated assault charge against a Dallas police officer who shot and killed a pregnant woman in a January confrontation involving a stolen car.
The Dallas County district attorney announced Friday that Dallas Police Officer Christopher Hess was indicted on the charge of aggravated assault in the shooting death of a pregnant 21-year-old Genevive Dawes.
Hess shot and killed a pregnant Dawes in a January confrontation involving a stolen car. It is the first time in 43 years that a Dallas Police officer has been indicted for an officer-involved shooting that resulted in death.
Daryl Washington, a civil rights attorney representing Dawes' family, said they were hoping for a murder charge to be brought against the officer. Washington also said the family was hoping a second charge would be brought because of the passenger, Virgilio Rosales, Dawes' boyfriend, who was also shot at during the incident.
He said Dawes was five months pregnant when she died after being struck by at least four bullets.
Hess and another officer, Senior Corporal Jason Kimpel, who the grand jury did not recommend charges against, had responded to a suspicious persons call, according to police accounts.
Dawes and Rosales allegedly ignored commands to get out of the car, reversed the car into a police cruiser, rammed a wooden fence and were reversing away from the fence when police fired, killing Dawes and injuring Rosales.
Washington said that account is flawed. He said the couple was sleeping about 5 a.m. in the car when police arrived. He said from the evidence he has seen, Dawes never drove the car toward the officers or tried to hit them. He also said Dawes did not know the car was stolen.
Washington said the officers fired 14 times into the car, and that he believed Hess had fired 13 of the shots.
'There were a total of 14 shots at a vehicle that was going five miles per hour,' Washington said. 'I can 100 per cent stand behind the fact that no officers were in danger. No officer at the time that those shots were fired, were behind that vehicle. And I feel comfortable saying that the statements given by the Dallas police officers were inaccurate.'
Authorities say Hess, a 10-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department, will be placed on administrative leave pending a review by Internal Affairs investigators.
If convicted, Hess faces between 5 and 99 years in prison. It was unclear from court documents if Hess had an attorney.
The Dallas County district attorney's office was scheduled to hold a news conference Friday afternoon to discuss the charges.
Dawes' family members, who gathered to make a statement about the indictment Friday, said she was a goofy and loving woman who would make everyone laugh, once adopted a stray duck and was devoted to her two daughters, Krystinah Rosales, 2, and Cerenity Rosales, 1.
'I feel like they tried to make my sister look like a criminal, to sweep it under the table to not even try to get justice for her,' said Alisha Garcia, Dawes' 26-year-old sister. 'She was my only sister. They took her life.'
1 comment:
Nobody ever said the job was easy. It should be relatively fair, but it doesn't need to be easy.
Post a Comment