Self-defense claimed in protester’s shooting
Ride-share driver says the demonstrator raised his rifle, prompting him to fire his handgun, before another fired at his car
AUSTIN — The deadly confrontation between an armed motorist and an armed protester during a street demonstration in downtown Austin last weekend began when the motorist made a turn toward a crowd of marchers and came to a stop.
The protester was Garrett Foster, 28, a former aircraft mechanic for the U.S. Air Force who wore a bandanna on his face and carried an AK-47-type rifle on a strap in front of him. The driver who fired the fatal shots has now been identified as Daniel Perry, 33, an activeduty sergeant with the U.S. Army and a driver for a ride-share company who had just dropped off a customer.
Days after the shooting that stunned Austin, the incident remains in dispute, with multiple versions from the police, demonstrators and Perry, who has not been charged by prosecutors.
Foster was at the demonstration with his fiancée, Whitney Mitchell, a quadruple amputee who uses a wheelchair. The two of them had frequently attended protests against police brutality in Austin.
Demonstrators who witnessed the incident have said in interviews that Perry was driving aggressively in the direction of the protesters and that Foster approached the vehicle with his rifle pointed downward. At that point, they said, Perry pulled out a handgun and shot him.
But in a statement released late Thursday evening, Perry’s lawyer disputed that version of events.
Perry did not know that a Black Lives Matter demonstration was taking place when he turned onto the street, said the lawyer, F. Clinton Broden.
He said Foster approached the car and motioned with his rifle for Perry to lower the window, and Perry complied because he believed Foster was associated with law enforcement. As Perry realized that Foster was not a police officer, Foster raised the rifle toward him, Broden said in the statement.
“It was only then that Sgt. Perry, who carried a handgun in his car for his own protection while driving strangers in the ride-share program, fired on the person to protect his own life,” he said.
Broden said the police had interviewed witnesses who were marching with Foster and who had confirmed that he had raised his rifle “in a direct threat to Sgt. Perry’s life.” Immediately after the shooting, he said, a person in the crowd began firing on Perry’s car, so he “drove to safety and immediately called the police.”
Foster’s family said they were certain that he had not threatened the motorist.
“Everyone who was standing around said Garrett never raised his weapon,” his mother, Sheila Foster, said in an interview Friday. “That man took away one of the best people on this planet.”
A person who appeared to be Perry had posted in the past on Twitter about using violence against protesters. The Twitter account has since been deleted, and Broden did not respond to queries about it.
In June, President Donald Trump posted a warning to protesters the day before his rally in Tulsa, writing on Twitter that any “protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!”
The person who appeared to be Perry responded on Twitter: “Send them to Texas we will show them why we say don’t mess with Texas.” In another tweet in June, he wrote that shooting someone in their so-called “center of mass” or chest area was the best way to take the person down.
Foster’s comments before the shooting are also being scrutinized. Earlier that evening at the demonstration, Foster was interviewed by an independent journalist live on Periscope about why he brought his rifle, and he said that “all the people that hate us” were too afraid to “stop and actually do anything about it.”
Kenneth Casaday, president of the Austin police officers union, wrote on Twitter that Foster “was looking for confrontation and he found it,” but he later apologized.