Officers charged with assault over response to George Floyd protests

Two Dallas police officers were indicted Friday on assault charges over their response to demonstrators protesting George Floyd’s killing two years ago, actions that fractured the orbital socket of one man and injured two others, authorities said.

The officers, Senior Cpl. Ryan A. Mabry and former Senior Cpl. Melvin A. Williams, each face two counts of deadly conduct, a felony, and charges of aggravated assault by a public servant, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office announced.

A third officer, Joe Privitt of the Garland Police Department, was indicted on one count of aggravated assault by a public servant, though details of what led to his indictment were not immediately available.

An investigation found that during protests on May 30, 2020, in downtown Dallas, Mabry used a launcher to shoot a man with an impact foam projectile, according to an arrest warrant. Another investigation found that Williams also shot someone using a launcher containing such a projectile, according to a warrant.

The launcher used by the officers is considered a deadly weapon under the Texas Penal Code, court records said.

According to a warrant for Williams, a man said he suffered a fractured orbital socket and vision issues after being shot in the face with the projectile.

Video footage from police body cameras, security cameras and the man’s phone show that the man was unarmed and did not make any threats to the officers, records show. At the time he was shot, the man was walking backward away from officers while recording them with this phone, a warrant said.

Williams also fired a shot from his launcher that struck an unarmed man in the posterior from 49 feet away, according to an arrest warrant.