Family Wants Answers After Teen Killed By Texas Police Officer
*This has been going on for a couple of days while the media has been mesmerized by the presidential election. An unarmed 16 year-old Latino was killed by an off duty police officer who pursued the victim and another youth in his personal car after he suspected them of burglarizing cars in his apartment complex. The boy’s family is demanding that charges be brought against the officer. VL
By Joel Thomas, CBS DFW
FARMERS BRANCH (CBSDFW.COM) – Friends and family members of 16-year-old Jose Raul Cruz are demanding some answers Tuesday after the teen was shot and killed by a Farmers Branch police officer. Theincident happened Sunday evening near a gas station near the intersection of Marsh Lane and Spring Valley Road.
Authorities said that off-duty officer Ken Johnson saw Cruz and a teenage friend breaking into cars at an Addison apartment complex where Johnson lives. The officer and the teens were then involved a car chase which ended in an altercation. Johnson rammed the car that Cruz was driving, and shots were fired. Cruz was killed, and was allegedly unarmed.
The passenger inside of Cruz’s vehicle was also hurt and sent to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the head, later alleged to be a grazing of the ear that also took off the boy’s finger as he covered his face during the gunfire. The injuries are not life threatening. That victim’s name has not been released.
Click HERE to reaed the full story.
[Photo courtesy of Carlos Quintanilla]
Suggested reading