By Jessica Priest
Victoria Advocate
VICTORIA, Texas — The two Victoria police officers who fatally shot an Army veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder will not face criminal charges.
Officers Robert Nichols and Jonathan Hein did not act criminally or negligently when they fired five shots at Brandon Lawrence the night of April 25.
“By his conduct, intoxication and emotional imbalance, Brandon Lawrence is not only the proximate cause, but the definite cause of his own death,” the grand jury wrote in a report about the shooting.
“I do not agree with the outcome. I still stand by what I said. I believe my husband was murdered,” Lawrence’s widow, Yasmine Lawrence, wrote via a Facebook message on Thursday.
The officers responded to the 800 block of Simpson Street after receiving reports Lawrence was pacing erratically, ranting loudly and brandishing a 2- to 3-foot machete in his apartment complex’s common area.
They had been there before for disturbances.
Before the officers arrived on April 25, Lawrence had fought with his neighbors, who said he had offered liquor to a child while playing video games, the grand jurors wrote.
Lawrence came outside his apartment when the officers ordered him to, but was still brandishing the machete. Although there is poor visibility there, the officers announced their identity between eight to 10 times and so did his wife, the grand jurors wrote.
The officers then ordered Lawrence to drop his machete more than 50 times. When he took two steps toward the officers holding it over his head, they fired the shots from about 20 feet away, the grand jurors wrote.
An autopsy revealed Lawrence was struck by three .45-caliber jacketed hallow-point projectiles. Two entered his chest, destroying his heart. One passed through his foot.
The grand jurors said the situation did not lend itself to safe de-escalation both because Lawrence could theoretically close the distance between them within one to two seconds and because officers are not universally equipped with non-lethal weapons.
“Officers in most law enforcement agencies are not trained in a tandem de-escalation of force at close distance in circumstances similar to those presented,” the grand jurors wrote.
Although they found Nichols and Hein did not violate departmental procedures, the grand jury suggested the Victoria Police Department offer more training.
They also recommended officers involved in shootings undergo a psychological evaluation and counseling before returning to work.
Police Chief J.J. Craig said both training and counseling are already offered.
On Sept. 16, about 30 officers attended an eight-hour mental health first aid training at the Gulf Bend Center, for example.
Nichols and Hein, meanwhile, have returned to patrol.
Craig appreciated the grand jury’s thorough review of the facts and supported its decision.
“The decision to use deadly force is not taken lightly. It is the most difficult and scrutinized action a peace officer will ever make and is the last resort to protect life,” Craig said Thursday.
Kevin Lawrence, the executive director of the Texas Municipal Police Association, wondered why the grand jury considered availability of less-lethal weapons.
“It’s a tragedy that this man lost his life,” Lawrence said, “but when someone attacks you with a machete, are you supposed to sit there and say, ‘Wait a minute. Do I need to use something less lethal before I defend myself or somebody else?’”
Lawrence, who graduated from a police academy in the late 1970s, said law enforcement officers have long been taught that there is not enough time to react to a suspect with a sharp edged weapon if he or she is within 21 feet.
He said he’s found no empirical evidence through the years to disprove that.
Officers are also trained to shoot to stop the threat and that the most effective way to do that is to aim for the chest.
“If you shoot at his hand and miss, what happens? You die,” Lawrence said. “Nobody is that good a shot. Nobody in the history of the world is that good a shot.”
Brandon Lawrence was 24 and working as a diesel mechanic at the time of his death.
A veteran who had been deployed to Afghanistan in 2011, he was separated from the Army for disciplinary and substance-related issues, the grand jurors noted. His discharge was other than honorable.
They found he sought help from a VA hospital not only for PTSD but also for alcohol dependence, severe anxiety and irritability. They found he also had prescribed drugs, methamphetamine and marijuana in his system.
The father of two young children, Lawrence had just begun taking medicine for PTSD.
He was eager to teach his son basketball and thought his daughter would one day be an actress, his family said after his death.
They are still in mourning.
His wife thought the officers could have handled things differently.
She also clarified on Thursday that Lawrence’s separation from the Army was because of alcohol, not drugs.
“He used alcohol after he got back from Afghanistan. It was his way of dealing,” she wrote. “He was a very hard worker, and everyone loved him there. His kids were his pride and joy.”
It was not clear whether the officers called the Gulf Bend Center for assistance the night of the shooting.
Kevin Lawrence said it is a shame law enforcement have been encountering more mentally ill people since the legislature in the 1980s placed the burden of treating them back on the community. Specifically, the mentally ill are no longer getting the in-patient care they need, Lawrence said.
“Police officers don’t have the ability, the time or the training to go out and diagnose mental disabilities in a split second situation,” he said.
Copyright 2015 Victoria Advocate