Black Man Killed By Texas Police Was Simply Trying To Break Up A Domestic Violence Incident
Yet another unarmed Black man has been killed by police, this time in Wolfe City, Texas. On Saturday night (October 3), Jonathan Price was simply attempting to be a good samaritan when he was tasered and then gunned down. Now, his family wants to know why he had to lose his life when he posed no threat to the situation, although officials have yet to release further details.
According to local Dallas station WFAA, Price, 31, came across a domestic violence situation between a man and a woman at a Kwik Check gas station that began inside the adjacent convenience store area, but spilled outside. The man started to assault Price and when police arrived, they used a taser on Price in the skirmish. At some point, shots rang out and Price lay dead when it was over.
The Texas Rangers, who are investigating the case at the request of the Wolfe City police department, have not revealed the results of their investigation to show exactly how Price was shot, but attorney Lee Merritt, who says he has spoken with Price’s family wrote on his Facebook page that he was not being aggressive with police.
“When police arrived, I’m told, he raised his hands and attempted to explain what was going on. Police fired tasers at him and when his body convulsed from the electrical current, they “perceived a threat” and shot him to death,” Merritt wrote.
The officer involved, whose name has not been released has been placed on administrative leave, WFAA reports. The gas station cameras were operating, but footage of the incident was not immediately released. Witnesses say the officer who shot Price is white.
"We were all in shock. Why would a cop shoot somebody?" said Kyle Sanders to WFAA. He was at a store across the street when the shooting happened. “We all love him and think so highly of him and just the nicest guy you could ever meet. We're all devastated, shocked, we don't really know what to do or where to go from here."
Price worked for the city public works department and was also a fitness trainer. He was called by people who knew him as a “pillar of the community.”
His mother, Marcella Louis told the station that when she was called about the shooting, she rushed over to the site, but wasn’t allowed to approach her son.
“They wouldn’t let me get close to my baby,” she said. “I just wanted to hold his hands and they wouldn’t let me do that.”
Will Middlebrooks, a retired third baseman with the Boston Red Sox who grew up with Price, urged calm in Wolfe City, despite acknowledging that everyone was feeling “angry, sad and broken.”
"The last thing I want to see is that town get torn to pieces because of this," he told WFAA. "Most people in that town are behind Jonathan and everything he was about and who he is and who he was as a person."
