Bad lighting was blamed in the recent shooting death of 73-year-old Jerry Waller , an elderly man in Fort Worth, Texas.
According to a police affidavit, Fort Worth police officers fatally shot the armed homeowner during a burglary call. The officers arrived at 409 Havenwood Lane at close to 12:51 a.m. on May 28 of this year. Unfortunately, the officers went to the wrong house — that of Waller’s at 404 Havenwood Lane.
The affidavit stated that Waller’s home “did not have lighting around it,” NBC Dallas-Fort Worth noted.
Concerned the burglary was still in place, the officers used flashlights to search the premises.
Waller was reportedly holding a handgun when the officers spotted him near the corner of the home. One of the officers told Waller to drop the handgun, but he instead pointed it at them, and at that point, he was shot and killed, the affidavit stated.
The medical examiner concluded Jerry Waller had died in his garage. A search warrant filed several hours after the shooting was released to the public last week , noted MSN Now.
While the department has declined to comment directly on the case, Sergeant Kelly Peel asked that the public “Please keep in mind that the Havenwood Lane North shooting is a critical police incident that takes several weeks to complete by the Fort Worth Police Major Case Unit … It will be reviewed through the chain of command and ultimately by the chief of police.”
Waller’s family wants an independent investigation, stating they were “deeply troubled by the police department misrepresenting details of the incident” during media interviews, in a statement.
On the day of the shooting, Kathy Waller, wife of the deceased, told NBC 5 she was “disgusted” and called the officers “trigger happy.”
Kathy Waller said her husband had grabbed his.38-caliber pistol, then went outside to investigate the bright lights that were flashing just outside their bedroom window. Staying in the bedroom, Kathy heard yelling almost simultaneously with the gunshots.
Both Fort Worth police officers had been with the department for less than a year.
Unfortunately, this has been one of many police responses gone wrong as of late. On Saturday, The Inquisitr reported on the 95-year-old nursing home resident tasered to death by police in Illinois. And then in June, there was this disturbing story involving victim Monica Contreras :
In the case of the Waller shooting, do you think bad lighting was to blame, or is this a case of police overreach?
[Image via ShutterStock ]
