Officer kept on force during murder probe

The Dallas Police Department allowed an officer to continue patrolling for more than a year while investigating whether he ordered two people to be killed because it didn’t want to tip him off, the city’s former police chief said.

U. Renee Hall, who left the department at the end of 2020, said in a statement on Twitter that police investigators, in collaboration with the FBI, recommended not placing officer Bryan Riser on administrative leave after he was identified as a person of interest in 2019.

“If Riser had known he was a person-of-interest, DPD might not have been able to bring justice to the families,” Hall said.

Hall’s explanation came hours after Riser, 36, was arrested on two counts of capital murder. Riser was being held Friday on $5 million bond after a court appearance Thursday night.

Dallas’ new police chief, Eddie Garcia, said that someone came forward in 2019 and told police he kidnapped and killed two people on Riser’s instructions in separate 2017 attacks.

Garcia said neither killing was connected to Riser’s police work.