ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Police have asked the FBI to participate in the investigation into the death of a Texas college football player who was fatally shot by an officer during a burglary call at a car dealership.
Arlington police officer Brad Miller, who is white, is on administrative leave after the early Friday shooting of 19-year-old Christian Taylor, who is black.
During a news conference Saturday night, Police Chief Will Johnson said a special FBI agent in charge of the Dallas field office would take part in the probe.
He stressed it “in no way diminishes my confidence in the Arlington police department’s ability” to investigate.
Johnson said Miller and another officer found Taylor “freely roaming” inside the dealership. The other officer used his Taser. Miller fired four rounds from his service weapon.
On Saturday, Classic Buick GMC released this surveillance video showing a person believed to be Taylor walking around the closed dealership as Arlington Police responded to the burglary call:
Police Sgt. Paul Rodriguez said earlier in the day that Miller and his training officer were the only two officers known to have directly engaged Taylor, an Arlington native who was a sophomore at Angelo State University in West Texas. Other officers had set up a perimeter around the car dealership where the incident occurred.
According to a police statement, an “altercation” of some kind ensued and Miller shot Taylor.
Police had gone to the Classic Buick GMC in Arlington, about 10 miles west of Dallas, after being contacted by a company that manages security cameras at for the car dealership, according to Rodriguez. He said police were advised that someone had driven a car onto the lot, started to damage another car, then drove his own vehicle into the glass front of the showroom.
Taylor, who was black, was shot by a white police officer two days before the anniversary of the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, an unarmed, black 18-year-old whose death galvanized the “Black Lives Matter” movement and sparked protests that at times turned violent.
Some of the nationwide criticism of police use of force in the last year has happened online, and Taylor’s death resonated on social media, with some posts questioning the official account and calling for video to be released.
Police say they are investigating Taylor’s death both as a possible criminal case and to determine whether department rules were broken.
Miller, 49, has been with the Arlington Police Department since last September and has been working under the supervision of a training officer since his graduation from the police academy in March, according to police. Miller had no police experience before joining the Arlington police force.
As reported by Business Insider