Video released of Denton police shooting UNT student holding frying pan, cleaver
A University of North Texas student was shocked with a taser twice and shot three times after he charged at officers with a meat cleaver and frying pan in January, body camera video shows.
An attorney for his family said the man was suffering from a mental health crisis after receiving a traumatic brain injury from a car wreck a week earlier.
Four officers were sent to Darius Tarver’s apartment building at around 3 a.m. on Jan 21 after police received multiple 911 calls from residents saying a man was acting erratically, banging on doors and shattering light fixtures in a hallway with a frying pan.
Video shows that officers tried to talk to Tarver before he approached them, and that he was warned if he didn’t comply, an officer would hit him with a Taser. Tarver walked down the stairs holding the meat cleaver and frying pan, muttering something that wasn’t audible in the video.
“One last time, drop it now, drop it,” an officer said as Tarver stood at the bottom of the stairs.
When Tarver didn’t drop the items, one officer shot his Taser and Tarver groaned out and then ran toward the officer, the video shows. The officers tried to back up and as Tarver got to the sidewalk, one officer fired a single shot from his handgun.
Tarver fell to the ground and the meat cleaver landed behind his head. One officer kicked it away as the other officers yelled at Tarver to stay down. Tarver then stood back up and an officer shocked him again with a Taser.
“There’s already been one delivery of a Taser, he’s already been shot one time, and now he’s jumping up,” Police Chief Frank Dixon said during a Thursday news conference. “Things are not looking good at this point. Further in their mind, something more is going on here ... he is not physically reacting the way people normally do when they’re shot.”
After being hit with the Taser a second time, Tarver picked up the frying pan with his right hand and was shot two more times as he lunged toward officers.
The officers attempted to render aid and called an ambulance.
‘Rhetoric’ in the community
Dixon said in January that he planned to wait to release the video footage until after a Denton County grand jury was presented with the case. However, he said rhetoric in the community and false accusations and rumors being spread at a recent city council meeting are what drove him and other city leaders to release the video on Thursday.
During the council meeting, the officers were called “murderers” and “suspects,” Dixon said.
“I can no longer stand by and allow false and inaccurate information continuing to foster in our community,” he said. “That is fostering public discourse and at this point, we’re at a tipping point and it’s very important to me ... that accurate facts are out.”
The Texas Rangers are handling the criminal investigation of the shooting, and some information has not been shared with the Denton Police Department, Dixon said. He was unable to answer if toxicology reports were returned on Tarver.
Along with the video, police released audio of two 911 calls that were made that night, including one by Tarver’s roommate.
In that call, the roommate told police that Tarver had tried to barricade himself in the apartment and that he wouldn’t let him leave. Scared, the man told police he escaped the apartment and ran away to call 911. He told dispatchers that he thought his roommate “might be on something.”
He refused to go back to the apartment until police arrived. He said his roommate had not been violent toward him, but he was afraid and didn’t want Tarver to see him.
A nearby resident of the complex also called 911. She told police she had locked herself in a bedroom with a knife when she heard a man loudly banging on her door.
Dixon said other residents also called 911, but those calls weren’t released.
One officer was injured in the confrontation and spent a day in the hospital, Dixon said. All of the officers have returned to duty, including the officer who fired the three shots at Tarver. That officer is back on patrol, Dixon said.
No de-escalation, family says
Kevin Tarver, a chaplain with the McKinney Police Department, watched part of the video in February and said at a news conference that day that he believed police didn’t try to de-escalate the situation.
In the video, “my son is crying out, ‘My heavenly father’,” Tarver said. “I did not see my son attacking anyone.”
Dixon said at Thursday’s news conference that Kevin Tarver watched one of the four videos before he became upset and walked out, adding that he understands why Kevin Tarver would be upset.
On Friday, after watching the newly released videos, the attorney for the family, Lee Merritt, of Dallas, said it’s clear that Tarver was suffering from a mental health crisis that night from how he behaved and talked. He kept repeating phrases such as, “There is only one God and he will be my shield,” and “Heavenly father.”
His behavior has been tied to a car wreck Tarver was in a week prior to the shooting, according to his family and roommate. Merritt said the wreck left Tarver with a traumatic brain injury.
“He was prematurely released from the ICU and subsequently began to exhibit signs of significant mental impairment,” Merritt said. “On the day he was killed, he was observed barricading himself in his room and sporadically emerging muttering to himself about God and light.”
The police chief said officers were acting on information they had at the time, and that the roommate didn’t mention a car wreck, just the possibility that Tarver was “on something.” After Tarver was shot the second time, one officer noticed the stitches on his face from the wreck.
“These were not the calls of someone simply asking for help,” Dixon said, later adding that Tarver’s behavior mimicked someone on PCP.
However, Merritt pointed out that during the call, Tarver’s roommate said he was not violent or threatening toward him, but that his behavior was bizarre.
Before the wreck, Darius Tarver was a 23-year-old UNT senior. He worked two jobs and was to graduate in May with a degree in criminal justice, his father has said.
Kevin Tarver said his son was on the dean’s list, had numerous friends, and a scholarship has been named in his honor.
Police training
Dixon said at a news conference on Jan. 21, the day of the shooting, that officers followed their training and tried to de-escalate the situation and resolve it peacefully.
“I want to stress to you that officers every day come to work in this profession hoping to get home, but more importantly hoping that everybody they interact with get home as well, and I think that played out in this occasion,” Dixon said.
Merritt disagreed and said he believes any training on how to spot a mental health crisis was ignored.
“The mentally impaired are among the most vulnerable communities in our society,” he said. “First responders are required to recognize signs of mental health crisis and engage citizens suffering such episodes with care and professionalism.”
He said that after the first time Tarver was shot, and when the cleaver was kicked away, officers should have been able to subdue a man carrying a frying pan.
“The responding officers were poorly trained and ill equipped to respond to this crisis,” Merritt said. “As a result, a promising UNT student and valuable member of our community is dead. We demand justice.”
The officer who shot Tarver is a six-year veteran of the department, and the officer who was injured is new to Denton but has more than 10 years of previous law enforcement experience, police said. Their names haven’t been released.
The internal Denton police investigation is incomplete, pending the completion of the criminal investigation by the Texas Rangers.
This story was originally published March 5, 2020 at 3:40 PM.
