Woman avoids arrest, then shot by boyfriend; Fort Worth officers suspended

Two Fort Worth officers were suspended this month on accusations that their failure to arrest a woman for violating a protective order resulted in the woman being shot three times just two hours later.

Officers Casey Carter and Robert Thetford have appealed their discipline — a six-day suspension for Carter and a two-day suspension for Thetford.

The suspensions stemmed from the officers’ handling of a call for police at a Club at Fossil Creek apartment at 6:36 a.m. Aug. 22, according to disciplinary letters released to the Star-Telegram on Wednesday after an open records request.

According to the letters, Carter spoke to a woman on the scene who had been arguing with her boyfriend. A police report identifies the woman as 39-year-old Jennifer McCormick.

The woman told Carter that her boyfriend had an active emergency protective order against her.

Carter, the letter states, confirmed the active order against the woman, which prohibited her from being at the address and contact with her boyfriend.

The letter states Carter and the woman then walked to the parking lot, where Thetford, the officer assisting on the call, was talking to the woman’s boyfriend.

Carter told the woman he would not arrest her since the boyfriend was leaving the location.

Both officers then left the scene without generating a required police report, the letters state.

The disciplinary letter states that Thetford was aware of the active protective order because of its mention over the police radio and because Carter later specifically told him about it after they left the scene. Despite this knowledge, the letter states, Thetford did not return to the scene and make the required arrest.

The officers were called back to the location about two hours later on a shooting call. They found McCormick sitting on a curb bleeding. The letter states she’d been shot three times by her boyfriend and required surgery.

The boyfriend, 41-year-old Jeffrey Craig Parker, barricaded himself inside the apartment but was later arrested by a SWAT unit, according to Sgt. Steven Enright, a police spokesman.

Parker has been indicted on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and arson, stemming from a fire inside the apartment after the shooting. He was in the Tarrant County Jail on Wednesday with bail set at $275,000.

The disciplinary letters, signed by Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald, accuse both officers of acts of incompetency, neglect of duty and violating department rules. “As a result” of their failing to do their jobs as peace officers, the woman was shot three times, causing serious bodily injury, the letters say.

The officers’ attorney, Terry Daffron with the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, said Fitzgerald’s letters “left out several important facts.”

“The chief disciplined the officers for not making an arrest on scene or generating an offense report. However, it is my understanding that the [department] has yet to follow up and make the required arrest or complete the required offense report on the female for violating the protective order,” Daffron wrote in an email. “Who do we discipline for the continued failure to take police action in this case? The chief? Internal Affairs? Who is held accountable?”

Thetford was commissioned as a Fort Worth officer in December 1999 and Carter in December 2004, their letters state. Since the August incident, Carter and Thetford have been promoted to the corporal/detective rank, Daffron said.

Court records show McCormick was arrested in June and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. She was accused of threatening to kill her boyfriend while holding a screwdriver in hand.

A Tarrant County grand jury declined to indict McCormick on the charge in July, court records show.

This story was originally published February 17, 2016 at 3:12 PM with the headline "Woman avoids arrest, then shot by boyfriend; Fort Worth officers suspended."