Texas police shooting overlooked despite initial momentum

DALLAS — It was the kind of shooting that had spurred national interest before: A police officer had opened fire into a vehicle, leaving a black man dead.

For residents in Dallas, the Sept. 1 killing of 24-year-old O’Shae Terry in Arlington brought to mind the shooting of Jordan Edwards last year. The 15-year-old Edwards and four other black teenagers were in a car and leaving a house party in Balch Springs when a white officer shot into the moving vehicle, killing the high school freshman.

The officer was fired, convicted of murder and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Five days after Terry’s shooting, police released footage. But hours after the video images of Terry’s fatal traffic stop made headlines, attention was already turning to the Sept. 6 shooting of another black man, 26-year-old Botham Jean, killed by a white off-duty officer who lived in the same Dallas apartment complex as him.

The shooting resonated with people in a way that Terry’s didn’t. Jean had not been pulled over, but instead was gunned down in his own home by an officer who said she mistook Jean’s apartment for her own.

Activist and writer Shaun King said the nation only seems willing to focus on one police shooting story at a time. And in a news climate dominated by coverage of President Donald Trump, he said it’s more difficult to attract national interest for stories of police brutality.

“It became really, really difficult to get those stories told,” he said, adding that everybody would be talking about Terry’s killing had it happened in 2014.

Attorney Lee Merritt, who represents the Terry and Jean families, said the officers in both shootings should be held accountable.

The police footage, which consists of both body and dashboard camera videos, shows an Arlington officer chatting with Terry and his front-seat passenger after pulling the SUV over for a vehicle registration violation. A second officer, responding as backup, arrives and approaches the passenger-side door. The first officer tells Terry and his passenger that she smells marijuana in their vehicle and needs to search it.

The first officer then heads back to a patrol vehicle. About three minutes later, the SUV’s windows start to roll up and the backup officer grabs onto the passenger-side window and tells Terry to stop.

The SUV moves forward as three shots ring out. As the vehicle continues moving, two more shots are heard.

The officer who initiated the traffic stop did not open fire. Terry’s passenger was detained but later released.

Arlington police have not identified the officer who shot Terry except to say that he has been with the department for eight years.