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Family members of Pamela Turner, the woman fatally shot by a Baytown police officer Monday night, said the grandmother of three was a loving woman with a mental illness, but wasn’t a monster.
“My sister was a human being who had rights,” sister Tracy Frazier said on Thursday. “She did not deserve to be killed and murdered.”
The family gathered in front of the Harris County civil courthouse with a large legal team of prominent civil rights attorneys, who said they’re pushing for a murder charge on the unidentified Baytown police officer who pulled the trigger
Turner, 44, was shot during a confrontation with the officer, who said he was serving an arrest warrant on the woman. He struck her with a Taser, and she then grabbed a hold of the weapon and used it on him, Baytown police said. He then shot at her five times, which was captured on a video taken by a bystander.
Turner’s family members said that she struggled with paranoid schizophrenia and had previously complained about encounters with the same officer who had shot her.
Baytown police spokesman Lt. Steve Dorris identified the officer as Juan Delacruz.
Delacruz said he was serving an arrest warrant on the woman when they began to struggle, according to Baytown police. The two had “prior dealings,” Dorris said.
The officer struck Turner with a Taser, after which she grabbed a hold of the weapon and used it against him, Dorris said. He fired five shots, all heard on a now-viral video taken by a bystander.
Delacruz remains on paid administrative leave, officials said.
The police department will investigate whether Turner had mental health issues, and whether that was known to the officer at the time.