4 deputies won’t be charged in the death of boy
6-year-old killed during standoff
A Bexar County grand jury declined to indict four sheriff’s deputies who killed an unarmed suspect in a car theft, a shooting that also resulted in the death of a 6-year-old boy.
The decision comes over a year after the deputies opened fire on Amanda Lenee Jones, 30, in Schertz on Dec. 21, 2017, as she stood on the front porch of a mobile home and threatened to shoot them, officials said. She was hit multiple times and killed.
Inside the mobile home was 6-year-old Kameron Prescott, a first-grader who hours before had started his winter break from Wiederstein Elementary School.
One of the bullets the deputies fired at Jones pierced the home, fragmented and struck Kameron, who was walking in a front hallway, officials said.
Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales said Wednesday he thought the grand jury made the right decision in finding no probable cause that a crime had been committed.
The deputies are John Aguillon, George Herrera, Jesse Arias and Reserve Deputy Johnny Longoria. They had been on the sheriff’s staff between two and 27 years.
“I respect and agree with the decision of the grand jury in this case,” Gonzales said.
Kameron’s grandfather, Stephen Prescott, a San Antonio police officer, declined to comment on the grand jury decision except to say he was upset about it.
Kameron’s mother, Rubi Marie Prescott, declined to comment. His father, Christopher Prescott, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The shooting followed an hourslong chase through Northeast Bexar County, which started after a man reported his car had been stolen and that he knew where to find the suspect.
That morning, deputies found Jones hiding in a closet at a house, at which point she showed a gun and threatened to shoot a deputy, Sheriff Javier Salazar said at the time.
A nearly two-hour manhunt followed. At one point, Jones ran to a mobile home park in Schertz and broke into the mobile home of Kameron’s family.
Deputies closed in on her as she stood on the porch holding something that deputies “feared was a firearm,” according to a report by the Sheriff's Office the following month.
“Jones verbally stated to these deputies that she had a gun and that she was going to shoot them. All four deputies saw an object in Jones’ hand as she pointed it at them. All four deputies then fired at Jones, causing ballistic injuries that resulted in her death at the scene,” the report stated.
‘They need new training’
Days after the shootings, the Sheriff’s Office continued to look for her gun. An exhaustive search of the area failed to turn up a firearm. Investigators determined Jones was not armed at the time of the shooting, but it was possible she had a gun earlier in the pursuit.
Paramedics rushed Kameron to a nearby hospital, where he later was pronounced dead. Friends and family described Kameron, a Tiger Scout in Pack 51 in Schertz, as a happy kid who enjoyed riding his bike and playing Ninja Turtles. He wanted to become a firefighter.
“You don’t shoot when there’s so many people inside,” Debra Jimenez, Kameron’s
great-aunt, said a week after the shooting. “They need new training.”
Less than a month later, Salazar said he would increase the required in-service training hours for his deputies from 24 to 40 hours annually. That was effectively double the state requirement and brought the Sheriff’s Office in line with training at the San Antonio Police Department.
At the time, Salazar noted he had been planning the change since he took office nearly a year earlier. He said would incorporate findings from the investigation into the Schertz shootings into the new training program.
On Wednesday, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office didn’t immediately respond to questions regarding any more recent changes.
The deputies returned to patrol in June after receiving preliminary “clearance letters” from the district attorney’s office.
The Sheriff’s Office conducted two separate investigations of the shootings. One reviewed whether the
deputies’ actions were justified. The second, by Internal Affairs, reviewed whether procedures and policies were followed.
After those were completed, the district attorney’s office reviewed whether the deputies’ actions were justified.
On Tuesday, prosecutors with the district attorney’s office presented the case to a grand jury, made up of 12 citizens who serve for a set term, typically a month.
The jurors issued a “no bill.” The actual vote is unknown because grand jury proceedings, by law, are not open to the public. Nine votes are needed for an indictment.
Christian Henricksen, chief of litigation at the DA’s office, said he could not speak specifically about the grand jury decision not to indict the deputies.
He said prosecutors present all officer-involved shooting cases to a grand jury, even though that’s not required by law.
“It adds a level of oversight to the process,” Henricksen said. “The grand jury
is made up of 12 citizens that are impartial. It’s helpful to present these cases to them because it adds a level of oversight.”
Neighbors in the Pecan Grove mobile home park where the shooting occurred had mixed reactions to the decision.
Russell White, who lives across the street from Kameron’s home, said he watched part of the shooting unfold through a window.
‘In the wrong place’
According to White, several deputies surrounded the mobile home with their guns drawn. He said the door to the mobile home opened and all the deputies began to fire.
He said he didn’t see Jones, the suspect, but it’s possible she was outside of his view. Shortly afterward, he said deputies carried Kameron from the home to an area across the street.
“I feel like you’re not supposed to shoot in that scenario,” White said. “I don’t know.”
Shawna Keller, who lives several doors down, said she thought deputies were trying to protect the neighborhood.
Prior to the shooting, deputies had been sweeping the area for awhile, probably about 30 minutes, searching for Jones, a known felon with an extensive criminal history.
“To me, she brought in the trouble,” she said. “She invaded their home. Had she not run, none of this would have happened.”
“They didn’t know what she was capable of,” she added. “To me, they were trying to protect us.”
She said her heart breaks thinking of Kameron, who was in the same grade as her grandson at school.
“He was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said. “My heart also goes out to police. They’re just trying to do their job. You know they didn’t want to shoot a 6-year-old boy.
“How do you live with that?”