The Associated Press
HOUSTON (AP) -- The family of a Missouri City, Texas teenager shot dead by an off-duty police officer who was working as a security guard outside a movie theater has sued the Houston Police Department, the officer and the theater.
The Harris County district attorney’s office subpoenaed evidence Tuesday in the Friday shooting of 15-year-old Jose Vargas Jr.
Named as defendants in the lawsuit are the department; Officer R.K. Butler, whom police say shot Vargas, and the AMC Theaters Studio 30, which was using Butler as a security guard.
The boy’s parents, Jose and Maria Victoria Vargas, have not decided how much to seek in damages, Bryant said.
According to the lawsuit, the boy was driving a sport-utility vehicle when he stopped in the theater parking lot. The lawsuit alleges Butler stuck a pistol inside the vehicle and shot the teen in the chest.
Police have said the frame of the vehicle’s driver’s-side window struck Butler’s arm when Vargas stepped on the gas, causing the gun to fire accidentally. Investigators have said Vargas was unlicensed and driving suspiciously, ignored two other officers’ orders to stop, and nearly struck one of them with his SUV, the Chronicle reported.
The subpoenas prompted state District Judge Martha Hill Jamison to cancel a temporary restraining order to preserve the evidence.
“Once the grand jury took over the evidence, that accomplished our goal of protecting the evidence,” attorney Terry Bryant told the Houston Chronicle in Wednesday’s editions. Bryant filed the wrongful death lawsuit Monday on behalf of Vargas’ family.