Deputy recounts fatal shooting of unarmed man
Cameron Brewer’s statement of what he said happened on March 22, 2018, lit up a screen in a Harris County courtroom Thursday, showing the explanation of what led to the shooting death of an unarmed black man as he wandered a north Houston street with his pants around his ankles.
Brewer, 45, is on trial for aggravated assault by a public servant for fatally shooting Danny Ray Thomas in the middle of a Greenspoint intersection.
Copies of Brewer’s statement were shown to the members of the jury as testimony began on Thursday.
The deputy approached the intersection of Imperial Valley and Greens Road, he wrote, when he saw a man jumping up and down, punching the hood of a four-door car.
The man — now identified as Thomas — seemed “irate,” and his pants were pulled down to his ankles. Brewer said he recognized the man’s state as one of “excited delirium,” which often comes from drug use. He noted that people in this state have been known to shrug off multiple taser discharges.
Brewer got out of his vehicle and saw Thomas in a physical altercation with
someone in the four-door car. He began to yell commands, first for Thomas to show his hands, and then for him to get on the ground, he said.
Thomas began to advance on Brewer, the deputy said, and he pulled out his duty weapon.
“I noticed that he had red bloodshot eyes and his mouth was foaming,” he said.
Brewer retreated backward. He yelled for Thomas to comply, about 10 times in total, he told investigators.
“After believing my commands were ineffective and from my training and experience I feared that the suspect would attack me,” Brewer said.
Thomas got about 4 feet away, and the deputy fired his .40 caliber Glock one time, he said.
In his statement and subsequent conversation with investigators, Brewer never mentioned anything about believing Thomas was armed, Houston police Det. Matthew Fuller Millington told jurors Thursday.
The detective also said that police took a photo of Brewer shortly after the incident so they could record what he was wearing. In the picture, Brewer stood tall, displaying his duty weapon and taser on his gun belt.
Millington also said that dashcam video was taken during the incident, but that there was no body camera footage.
“He was having trouble that day with his body camera, and I think it was in his vehicle charging at the time,” the detective said, as one of Thomas’ family members scoffed from the audience.
The slain 34-year-old’s family sobbed through early testimony, when a paramedic described efforts to save Thomas’ life.
“He lost his pulse shortly after he got in the ambulance,” said Chivas Guillote, vice president of clinical services at the Harris County Emergency Corps.
The shooting garnered national attention from a viral video that captured parts of the scene. In Brewer’s dashcam video, he can be heard issuing several commands to Thomas.
“Get down on the ground, man!” he says. “I will shoot your ass, man.”
A cell phone video picks up where the dashcam video left off. Thomas is seen continuing to walk toward the deputy, who backs up with his gun drawn. A commercial vehicle blocks the camera seconds before one shot rings out — 17 seconds after Brewer gave his first order.
Brewer tried reviving Thomas, before he was rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead.
The deputy, who is black, was fired by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office in April 2018 and indicted by a grand jury that October, the first time in 15 years that Harris County prosecutors secured an indictment on a peace officer for an on-duty fatal shooting.
While Brewer wasn’t charged with murder, an aggravated assault by a peace officer charge carries the same punishment range. If convicted, he could face life in prison.
Brewer is being tried in state District Judge Josh Hill’s court.