Cop on leave after Black man fatally shot

Victim called ‘pillar’ of his Texas community

A Texas police officer has been placed on leave as authorities investigate after a man was shot and killed Saturday.

Officials from Wolfe City, located about an hour northeast of Dallas, said the shooting is being investigated by the Texas Rangers but did not identify the officer involved or the victim in a statement Sunday. Relatives and friends identified the man killed as Jonathan Price, 31, a city employee who was beloved in his community, WFAA-TV reported.

Witnesses told the outlet that a man and a woman were arguing at a Kwik Check gas station, and when Price tried to step in, the man assaulted him. Officers arrived and used a taser on Price before shooting him.

Kyla Sanders, who was at a store across the street when the shooting occurred, told the station Price was a “pillar of the community.”

“We all love him and think so highly of him and just the nicest guy you could ever meet,” Sanders said. “We’re all devastated, shocked, we don’t really know what to do or where to go from here.”

Price’s mother, Marcella Louis, told WFAA she was in bed when she learned about the shooting and rushed to the scene.

“And they wouldn’t let me get close to my baby. I just wanted to hold his hand and they wouldn’t let me do that,” Louis said. “I just wanted to crawl over there to him.”

Price’s childhood friend Will Middlebrooks, a former professional baseball player, started a GoFundMe campaign which has raised more than $48,000 for his memorial and funeral. Middlebrooks called the shooting “purely an act of racism” but called for calm in his hometown.

“This is a really, really tough loss for all of us,” he said in a video shared on Facebook. “The last thing I want to see is that town get torn to pieces because of this. I understand you’re angry I understand you’re sad and broken we all are.

Civil rights lawyer Lee Merritt, who represented the families of Ahmaud Arbery and Atatiana Jefferson, said he spoke to Price’s family and “agreed to do whatever it takes to get justice for JP.”

The Texas Department of Public Safety and the Wolfe City Police Department did not immediately respond to request for comment.