HOUSTON (AP) — Investigators were trying to determine Sunday what may have motivated a 30-year-old man accused of ambushing a uniformed suburban Houston sheriff’s deputy filling his patrol car with gas in what authorities believe was a targeted killing.
Shannon J. Miles was charged Saturday with capital murder in the fatal shooting of Darren Goforth, a 10-year veteran of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.
Goforth, 47, was pumping gas at a Chevron station on Friday night when the gunman approached him from behind and fired multiple shots, continuing to fire after the deputy had fallen to the ground.
The deputy had gone to the station in Cypress, a middle-class to upper middle-class suburban area of Harris County that is unincorporated and located northwest of Houston, after responding to a routine car accident earlier Friday.
Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman said the attack was “clearly unprovoked,” and there is no evidence so far that Goforth knew Miles. Investigators have no information from Miles that would shed light on his motive, Hickman said.
“Our assumption is that he was a target because he wore a uniform,” the sheriff said.
The killing has evoked strong emotions in the local law enforcement community, with Hickman linking it to heightened tension over the treatment of African-Americans by police. Goforth was white and Miles is black.
The nationwide “Black Lives Matter” movement formed after the killing of a black man by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, has sought sweeping reforms of policing. Related protests erupted recently in Texas after a 28-year-old Chicago area black woman, Sandra Bland, was found dead in a county jail about 50 miles northwest of Houston three days after her arrest on a traffic violation. Texas authorities said she committed suicide but her family is skeptical that she would have taken her own life.
Hickman and Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson on Saturday pushed back against the criticism of police. There must not be open warfare on law enforcement, Anderson said.
“We’ve heard Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter. Well, cops’ lives matter, too,” Hickman said.
Local law enforcement officers were worried after the Goforth killing that others could be targeted, he said.
“It gives us some peace knowing that this individual is no longer at large and that he wasn’t somebody that would be targeting the rest of the community,” Hickman said.
Miles is likely to be arraigned in court on Monday.
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Maybe we can get a movement going called “All lives matter”.
‘Targeted’ is a very appropriate characterization of the DWB stop of Sandra Bland seen from the arresting cop’s dashcam.
Because clearly its a good idea for the head of a law enforcement agency to have a preconceived explanation of the motive for a crime they’re investigating. And how convenient that that motive cuts off any need to really dig in and investigate whether there was something about this particular deputy that led to the crime.
This death is regrettable and tragic and my heart goes out to all his loved ones, but it’s amazing to me how when a black person is killed by a white person or, especially, a white cop, we see this minute inspection of every aspect of the victim’s life in a nearly hysterical quest to find a reason–often even mere evidence of marijuana use–to prove that victim was “no angel,” a “thug” who had it coming, yet when a white person, and especially a white cop, is killed by a black man, there’s an irrebuttable presumption of complete innocence of the victim that cuts off any need even for inquiry.
I winced when I heard Hickman’s comments. The man really doesn’t get what the BLM movement is about, but he certainly wants to show that he cares after a cop is killed.
Hickman is an irresponsible ass. It’s incendiary to blame, without a shred of evidence, the BLM movement for the death of the officer. Hickman is unfit to lead his department.