Prosecutors’ policing expert testifies Arlington officer unjustified in fatal shooting
An Arlington police officer took a substantial and unjustified risk that someone would be killed when he fired a gun upon a dog running in front of a woman who was on the ground, an expert on policing who analyzed the shooting testified on Wednesday at the officer’s trial.
Based on images recorded by the body-worn camera of the officer, Ravinder Singh, his focus appeared to be the dog, not Margarita Brooks, the woman he saw on the ground. The primary reason the shooting was a criminal blunder is that Singh fired when he knew a human being was downrange or in the backdrop of his gun’s muzzle, said the expert, Jonathyn Priest, who worked as a Denver Police Department officer for 32 years. Now retired, Priest is a consultant on police use of force and an instructor on law enforcement matters.
Brooks died, and Singh was indicted on criminally negligent homicide. A jury is considering the August 2019 case this week in 371st District Court in Tarrant County.
Law enforcement officers using firearms are trained to be certain of their target and what lies beyond, Priest testified.
Singh’s primary failure was firing knowing Brooks was in the background, said Priest, who was called to testify by the state. The shooting was neither reasonable nor necessary under the circumstances, Priest testified. Brooks, 30, suffered gunshot wounds to her forearm and chest.
“She’s forgotten here?” Tim Rodgers, an assistant Tarrant County criminal district attorney, asked about Brooks.
“Very much so,” Priest answered.
The shooting was a gross deviation from the standard of care and presented a substantial and unjustified risk to Brooks, the expert testified.
Under Texas law, “a person is criminally negligent with respect to the result of his or her conduct when he or she ought to be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a particular result will occur.”
Singh had other options to attempt to deal with the dog that would not have put a human at risk, the expert said.
Singh may have instead used pepper spray, a baton, a stun gun, his hands or feet, or a loud voice.
“Once that bullet leaves the muzzle of the firearm, there’s no calling it back,” Priest said.
The projectile recovered from Brooks’ body has a marking that indicated that it ricocheted after it struck a hard, unyielding surface such as the concrete sidewalk beside them, before it hit Brooks, Priest testified.
Priest testified that that element of the shooting, and that it is not known whether one or two bullets struck Brooks were not considerations in his analysis.
The dog weighed about 40 pounds. Singh was summoned to check on Brooks when a man called 911 to report she was unconscious outdoors on a blanket. He fired three 9mm rounds from a Glock handgun.
Singh’s body-worn camera recording of the shooting was played for jurors. The video shows Singh spotting Brooks in the distance and yelling questions when her dog began to bark and run in Singh’s direction.
The trial will continue on Thursday.
If he is found guilty, Singh, who resigned from the police department a few months after the shooting, faces a maximum of two years in jail and a $10,000 fine.
This story was originally published August 24, 2022 at 5:59 PM.
