A day after a surveillance video went public showing a Dallas police officer shooting a mentally ill man for no apparent reason, Chief David Brown ordered that an aggravated assault charge against the wounded man be “immediately” dropped.
The chief’s decision Friday came amid a growing chorus of outrage and calls from civil rights activists and others that an outside law enforcement agency — such as the Texas Rangers or the FBI — investigate Monday’s shooting of Bobby Gerald Bennett.
“The videotape just cries out for an independent investigation,” said Bill Wirskye, a former high-ranking Dallas County prosecutor. Wirskye is currently one of the special prosecutors in the Kaufman County district attorney slayings.
“Maybe there’s something that’s not in the video that would justify the officer’s actions, but at least based on the videotape and the documentation that I’ve seen, it’s not a justified shooting,” he said.