A Tarrant County grand jury agreed not to charge a former Arlington Police Department in the deadly shooting of unarmed teen, Christian Taylor.
On August 7, 2015, rookie officer Brad Miller responded to a call which resulted in him shooting and killing the 19-year-old college football player.
Under the influence of marijuana and a synthetic drug that mimics LSD, police say Taylor vandalized a car and drove through the showroom glass of an Arlington car dealership. Arlington police responded to the call and began securing the west side of the building. During this time, Officer Miller failed to communicate to his fellow officers who were helping to secure the premises that he was going to enter the building in pursuit of the burglar. Officer Miller then confronted Taylor in the showroom. As officer Miller gave orders to Taylor, another officer joined in the chase to catch Taylor who ignored Miller’s orders.
It was there that Officer Miller used what Arlington Police Chief Will Johnson calls poor judgement and made a tactical error. Miller was hit with a stun gun by the other responding officer and then shot 4 times by Officer Miller.
In a county where 30 people in the last ten years have been killed by law enforcement officers, it comes as no shock that Officer Miller would not be indicted by a grand jury. No officer in Tarrant County, has ever been indicted on charges related to police involved shootings resulting in death. The grand jury decided Wednesday, June 8th to not take any action against the 49-year-old who acted prematurely and failed to follow protocol. Miller’s attorney’s released a statement on his behalf.
“We would like to thank the members of the grand jury for their service and for their diligence in taking the necessary time to thoroughly consider all the facts before making a decision. Too often, police officers’ decisions are judged without proper consideration of the tense and dangerous situations they face. Brad Miller, like many other police officers, was forced to make a split-second decision to protect his life and the lives of his fellow officers. The grand jury made the right decision.”
Despite being fired by the police department, Taylor’s family was disappointed in the grand jury’s decision. Mike Heiskill, the Taylor family attorney spoke about the decision saying, “[Miller] struck out on his own, went inside, confronted Christian. And by this time his training officer came inside and assessed the situation used his Tazer and in the meantime Miller was using his 9 millimeter Glock to shoot him four times.We certainly believe it’s reckless, it’s negligent and unjustified.Their job is to serve and protect, and he didn’t protect Christian Taylor.”
The Arlington Police Department did not release a statement following the grand jury decision. Taylor was set to play football this Fall at Angelo State University, a promising opportunity he no longer will be able to take advantage.
