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Family hopes for justice as policeman charged in black woman’s 2019 death
WASHINGTON, Sept 18, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The family of a black woman shot
dead 16 months ago by a Texas police officer said justice was closer Thursday
after the officer was charged in her death.
Officer Juan Delacruz of Baytown, a Houston suburb, was indicted earlier
this week by a grand jury for felony aggravated assault in the death of 44-
year-old Pamela Turner.
“This is one step closer to getting the justice that my mom deserves and in
allowing her to be able to rest respectfully, as she should, because she
didn’t deserve to die,” Turner’s daughter Chelsea Rubin said in a press
conference Thursday.
Turner’s case is the latest of a series that have shone a spotlight on what
critics say is widespread police impunity in mistreating African-Americans.
Turner, whose family says was mentally ill, died in a scuffle with Delacruz
on May 13, 2019, as he sought to arrest her on minor charges.
A bystander video shows the two struggling as he tried to handcuff her and
she shouted that he was harassing her.
He tried to use his stun gun on her, and she apparently tried to grab it,
shouting that she was pregnant. Then, with Delacruz out of the view of the
video, five shots are heard.
After she died, Delacruz, who claimed self-defense, was only placed on
administrative leave — but only for a week. Police said she was not pregnant
at the time of death.
The case was meanwhile turned over to the Texas Rangers to investigate. The
grand jury indictment this week came nine months after the Rangers finalized
their report.
The charges are “a significant step toward justice and a validation that
her life had worth… that black women’s lives matter,” said civil rights
attorney Ben Crump, representing the family.
Crump also represents the family of Breonna Taylor, the black woman shot
dead by police in her own home earlier this year in Louisville, Kentucky.
After months of protests to force attention on her case, on Tuesday
Louisville announced a $12 million settlement in a wrongful death suit by her
family.
In the Turner case, Delacruz will go on trial on October 28, and faces a
sentence of up to life in prison if found guilty.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0934 hrs