Deputy not indicted in Ben Taub shooting

A Harris County grand jury has declined to indict a sheriff’s deputy in the fatal shooting of an inmate who took a medical student hostage last year at Ben Taub Hospital.

Ricky Lynn Hall, who had a long history of mental health problems, was being treated for seizures at Ben Taub in October when he snatched a sharp-edged object and used it to take the student hostage.

A deputy working an overtime security job heard the woman’s scream and rushed to the scene on the fifth floor, where he found the 46-year-old with his arm wrapped around the woman’s neck and a sharp object pressed to her throat.

The standoff moved out into the hallway, where Hall threatened to kill his hostage unless the deputy shot him, the Harris County Sheriff ’s Office said at the time.

In response, the deputy fired two shots, wounding Hall. The inmate was rushed into surgery but died less than two weeks later, when his mother decided to take him off life support.

Afterward, the Houston Police Department’s homicide unit, the Harris County District Attorney’s office and the sheriff ’s office internal affairs division all launched investigations into the shooting.

On May 2, a grand jury declined to indict sheriff ’s deputy Adriel Hinojosa, who was never charged in the case. David Cuevas, president of the Harris County Deputies’ Organization, praised the decision.

“We agree and support the grand jury’s decision,” he said.

A Chronicle review found that the sheriff ’s office may have violated its own policies by leaving Hall unattended in the moments before the shooting, and the sheriff ’s office had indicated it was set to examine whether any policies had been violated. A spokesperson, however, did not respond to questions about whether the investigation had been completed.

Although Hall’s family has not taken issue with the shooting, they’ve questioned the circumstances leading up to the gunfire and whether better adherence to department procedure could have avoided Hall’s death.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s like the blue wall of silence, nobody is held accountable,” said Hall’s uncle, Ben Hogan. “None of us are trying to get the cop in the trouble ... but if somebody does something wrong, they ought to be held accountable.”