Autopsy shows man who police say pointed gun at officers was shot in back
Autopsy results released Friday show an armed man was shot in the back while running from Fort Worth police.
Amari Malone, 18, was a person of interest in a homicide, police said.
A police officer who was sitting in his patrol car on Boca Raton Boulevard asked to speak with Malone, and Malone ran, a police video recording shows.
At least four officers chased Malone, who twisted and pointed a handgun at them, police said.
Police fired at Malone with their service weapons and he was hit once, according to police and a death notice on the website of the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Malone was pronounced dead about 7 p.m. Wednesday at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital, according to the medical examiner’s office.
The medical examiner’s office listed Malone’s cause of death as a gunshot wound to the back.
Police officials released video footage on Thursday that was culled from body cameras worn by the officers who fired their weapons.
Police also released a photograph of a gun that was lying in the grass that officers said Malone was carrying.
Police wanted to talk to Malone about the death of Ja’Waylon Gay, 24, interim Fort Worth Police Chief Ed Kraus said.
Gay was killed on Aug. 5 in the 3100 block of Las Vegas Trail. Malone was seen with a pistol at that scene, Kraus said.
Two police officers heard the shots that killed Gay, a Fort Worth resident. The officers approached a gas station and were directed by people in a parking lot to a field at its south end, where Gay was found, according to a police report.
The swift release of video Thursday was intended to refute erroneous online accounts of the shooting, Kraus said during a press conference.
Investigations of Malone’s death by the police department’s major case and internal affairs units are ongoing, police said Friday. The four officers who fired their guns were placed on paid administrative leave, a standard practice.
Malone’s shooting was the sixth time since June 1 that a Fort Worth police officer has shot a civilian. Five of those people died.
The attorney representing Malone’s family, Lee Merritt, said at a press conference Thursday that Malone started carrying a gun for protection after he was shot in the leg about a month ago.
This story includes information from Star-Telegram archives.
This story was originally published August 23, 2019 at 1:11 PM.
