By Eric Dexheimer
Austin American-Statesman
LOCKHART, Texas — A man killed by a Caldwell County sheriff’s deputy in the early morning hours of April 1 appears to be threatening the officer with a farm tool when he is shot, according to video of the incident captured on responding officers’ dashboard cameras.
The video showing Deputy Mike Taylor firing three shots at Jesse Juarez, 65, was released Monday afternoon by District Attorney Fred Weber. Weber said the Texas Rangers are continuing to investigate the incident, after which the case will be presented to a grand jury to determine whether any charges will be filed. Taylor has been placed on desk duty pending the outcome, Weber said.
Weber said the incident was the first fatal shooting by law enforcement officers “in years and years and years” to rattle Lockhart, a community about 30 miles southeast of Austin. The district attorney, who took the position at the start of last year, said he released the video and audio recordings ahead of the official report in an effort to be transparent and quell small-town rumors from spreading.
Taylor and a second deputy, Kyle McConnell, had responded to a 911 call reporting a man trying to break into a house on South Main Street in Lockhart. Weber said the man also was yelling threats as he smashed several windows.
By the time deputies arrived, the man had fled. But several minutes later, he was spotted down the road from the house.
On the dash camera video, Taylor can be seen pointing his gun and a flashlight at Juarez, who is holding a manual weed cutter commonly called a “yo-yo.” The deputy yells repeatedly at Juarez, directing him to show his hands, according to audio recordings from the scene.
Juarez, however, continues walking toward Taylor, holding the tool out in front of him. Taylor can be seen walking backward while pointing his gun, eventually retreating off the road and into a field. Weber said the deputies responding were not equipped with Tasers.
As Juarez appears to raise the implement over his shoulder, Taylor fires three shots, and Juarez crumples to the ground. He died at the scene.
Despite the images, Weber said much remains unknown about what precipitated the fatal shooting. He said that though it appeared Juarez had a history of mental health treatment, his office was still seeking medical records, including toxicology reports and an autopsy.
Juarez, who at one time had lived just a couple of doors down from the home he was trying to enter, also had been a patient at a San Marcos hospital three days before the shooting, though Weber said he didn’t know what he’d been treated for.
Juarez had been picked up on a nearby highway by a law enforcement officer several weeks earlier, Weber said, adding that the officer had simply given the man a ride back to Lockhart.
Taylor, who worked at the county jail for three years before moving to patrol in October 2013, recently was named in a lawsuit alleging that he and two other Caldwell County deputies used excessive force and filed a false report after responding to a call that a drunken man was threatening his son with a gun.
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