WATCH: Officer shoots at man accused of pointing gun at residents of Fort Worth apartments
A 42-year-old man who police said pointed a gun at residents of an east Fort Worth apartment complex on Jan. 15 and refused to obey officers’ commands faces multiple charges.
On Friday, Jan. 24, police released body-camera video from an officer who shot at the man while responding to the call. The man was not hit by the gunfire.
Officers responded to the Silver Leaf Villas in the 8500 block of John T White Road around 11:45 a.m. on Jan. 15 after receiving two 911 calls about a person with a weapon.
The first caller tells the dispatcher his neighbor is trying to kill him, and he doesn’t know why. He can be heard telling someone to calm down and not to shoot him, according to 911 audio released by the department at a news conference on Friday, Jan. 24.
A second person calls from the leasing office of the apartment complex.
“This guy is pointing a gun at our residents,” the woman says.
The first officer to arrive at the scene found the suspect, identified by police as Deron Morris, in the front parking lot by the office. According to police, Morris was pulling a handgun out of his waistband, but immediately put it back.
“Take your hands out for me,” the officer says, according to bodycam footage that the department released Friday.
Morris, who is quite a distance away, continues to walk toward the officer. He ignores her repeated commands to raise his hands. The officer points her service weapon at Morris, who keeps walking toward her.
The suspect finally raises his hands briefly, according to the video, but doesn’t drop the gun he’s carrying in his waistband. As he gets closer to her, the officer tells him to “Get on the ground.”
“No, you get on the ground,” Morris is heard saying to the officer.
The officer continues to stand by the patrol vehicle, her service weapon pointed at the suspect. She says she doesn’t want to shoot him and repeats the command.
“Get in your car and go home,” Morris says as he walks past the officer.
Morris keeps moving casually through the parking lot. He’s now in close proximity to a parked car, which police say was occupied by at least one person. The officer follows him and keeps giving him commands.
On the video, police said, Morris seems to be reaching for something in his waistband and looks back toward the officer. She fires three shots in his direction.
Police Chief Neil Noakes said the officer “perceived an imminent deadly threat” and did the right thing.
“She was forced to make a split second decision at that point,” Noakes said at the news conference. “What we train officers to do is use deadly force only when absolutely necessary. What we don’t train them is to wait until someone pulls a weapon, faces them, points it at them and pulls the trigger.”
The suspect wasn’t hit, and the officer keeps telling him to get on the ground, according to the video.
Morris stops and faces the officer, but then walks out of the parking lot as sirens of arriving officers are heard. The officer holsters her revolver and pulls out a Taser while following the suspect down the sidewalk.
A moment later a handgun is seen lying on the ground, which police believe Morris dropped, according to the video. It had an extended magazine, police said, meaning it was designed to hold more rounds than a standard magazine. Officers later recovered a second firearm.
The suspect starts running and heads into a gated area of the apartment complex. Additional officers arrive, but can’t follow Morris quickly because the gate is closed.
Morris barricaded himself in his apartment, according to police. The department’s SWAT team was called out, and Morris was taken into custody around 40 minutes later.
This was the second call on Jan. 15 where Fort Worth police fired shots. Earlier that morning, officers fatally shot a man who charged at them with two knives in his hand, police said.
Morris is being held in the Tarrant County Jail on a $100,000 bond. He faces five counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of aggravated assault against a public servant, according to court records.
Morris’ attorney, Lesa Pamplin, declined to comment Friday afternoon when the Star-Telegram contacted her by email.
The Fort Worth Police Department hasn’t released the name of the officer who fired at the suspect. She was placed on paid administrative leave directly following the shooting but has since returned to work, Noakes said.
Investigators are still trying to determine exactly where the officer’s bullets hit, but there’s no indication they entered any of the apartments, according to Noakes.
The investigation into the shooting is still in the preliminary stages.
