BAYTOWN, Texas -- A Harris County grand jury on Monday indicted a Baytown police officer in the 2019 death of a Black woman undergoing a mental health crisis, the latest in a series of recent Houston area deadly police shootings that have led to criminal charges filed or have been deemed unjustified by law enforcement officials.
The indictment comes more than a year after police said Officer Juan Delacruz shot 44-year-old Pamela Turner during an encounter at her apartment complex. Her case quickly garnered national attention because of her family's belief that the Baytown Police Department and the officer were aware of her paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis.
Delacruz was charged with aggravated assault by a public servant in the May 13, 2019, shooting, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. Harris County prosecutors filed the same charge against a deputy in 2018 who shot and killed a man who was caught on video wandering the street with his pants around his ankles. The deputy was acquitted. In a shooting involving a man believed to be dealing with schizophrenia, Houston police last week dismissed four officers who shot 24 rounds at the man, saying 21 of them were unjustified. The case has been sent to the district attorney’s office.
And earlier this year, in a case that focused on drugs, several HPD officers were indicted after a botched raid that led to the deaths of a southeast Houston couple.
In the Pamela Turner case, a bystander video also captured the mother of two yelling "I'm pregnant" just moments before she was shot. That statement turned out to be false, police said, but angered people who felt Delacruz should have done more to de-escalate the situation.
Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights attorney who represents Turner's family, lamented the 16 months that passed before the case was presented to a grand jury.
“As a society, we must do better,” Crump said. “Finally, Pamela Turner; her children, Chelsie Rubin and Cameron January; her sister, Antoinette Dorsey-James; and the rest of Pamela’s family, can receive the justice to which they are entitled, equal justice."
The aggravated assault by a public servant charge is a first-degree felony that carries a punishment of five years to life in prison.
“Pam Turner’s killing was a tragedy; it is important to acknowledge that her family and the community are in pain,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said in a statement.
“Every aspect of the case was independently investigated by the Texas Rangers and our Civil Rights Division prosecutors,” she added. “Ultimately, we presented all of the evidence to a grand jury that determined the Baytown Police officer should be charged with a crime for his actions when he shot Ms. Turner. We respect their decision and we will be moving forward with prosecution.”
The Baytown Police Department released a statement after the district attorney's office announced the indictment. Delacruz is still employed at the agency, where he has been removed from patrol and policing duties since shortly after the shooting, Lt. Steve Dorris said.
"We have faith and trust in our judicial system, and as we wait for this case to proceed through the legal process, we ask that our community continue to be patient and have trust and faith in those processes," the statement reads. "We also ask that our community continue to have faith and trust in the Baytown Police Department and the dedicated, professional men and women who are committed to serving all members of our community with integrity, compassion and professionalism."
Delacruz’s attorney, Gregory Cagle, has not returned requests for comment. As of Monday afternoon, Delacruz had been given the opportunity to turn himself in, according to the district attorney's office.
The indictment against Delacruz is the second against a Baytown officer in just a month, and one of several in the area since countrywide protests stemming from the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, who died as an officer arrested him with his knee on his neck.
Grand jurors in July indicted six former Houston police narcotics officers, charging them with crimes stemming from an investigation into a fatal 2019 drug raid that ended with two southeast Houston residents dead. Grand jurors returned indictments against case agent Gerald Goines and his former partner, Steven Bryant, as well as four others: former Lt. Robert Gonzales, Sgts. Clemente Reyna and Thomas Wood, and Goines’ old partner, Hodgie Armstrong. All of the officers retired in the months after the raid.
Goines and Bryant had already been indicted in January in the deaths of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas. At that time, Goines was charged with felony murder and both were charged with tampering with a government document.
A grand jury also indicted former Baytown Officer Nathaniel Brown earlier this month, charging him with misdemeanor assault for allegedly kicking a person recording an arrest during a traffic stop. The department fired Brown less than two months after the June incident.
The Delacruz investigation is ongoing at the Baytown Police Department, meanwhile, as an Internal Affairs investigation has been completed but still needs to be turned -over to Chief Keith Dougherty for review, Dorris said. The Texas Rangers also conducted an investigation into the encounter and turned the case over to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, which presents every officer-involved shooting to a grand jury.
The shooting
The Houston area has also seen a number of instances recently where police were accused of fatally shooting people undergoing mental health crises. In 2018, Harris County Sheriff's Office Deputy Cameron Brewer shot and killed 34-year-old Danny Ray Thomas, who was caught on video wandering the street with his pants around his ankles. A grand jury indicted him that same year, but jurors acquitted him of an aggravated assault by a public servant charge last year.
And more recently, Houston police fired four officers accused in the death of Nicolas Chavez, a 27-year-old who video showed cutting himself with a piece of rebar before being shot 21 times.
Turner’s case fell in the same category. Almost immediately after the shooting in 2019, her family revealed that she had paranoid schizophrenia.
Turner had been walking at her apartment complex in the 1600 block of Garth Road, when Delacruz approached her to arrest her on open warrants, Baytown police said of the fatal confrontation. The two began to struggle, and Delacruz shocked Turner with the Taser. She deployed the Taser against him, and Delacruz fired his weapon, according to authorities’ accounts.
A bystander video captured the encounter, showing Turner yelling that she was being harassed and that she just wanted to go home. At one point, she yelled "I'm pregnant."
The video showed Delacruz standing over Turner before he appeared to back away. Then, five shots rang out.
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