Ex-Texas officer charged in fatal shooting of suspect after slow-speed chase
A former North Texas police officer was indicted Thursday on a murder count in the fatal shooting of a suspect after a slow-speed vehicle chase.
The Tarrant County grand jury indicted former Arlington police officer Robert Phillips in the Oct. 20 shooting of Jesse Fischer of Addison, Texas.
Phillips, a seven-year department veteran, was fired two days after the shooting for violating Arlington Police Department policy. Phillips violated policy limiting when officers may put themselves in the path of a moving vehicle and when they may shoot at a moving vehicle, Police Chief Al Jones said.
Phillips could be sentenced to five to 99 years or life in prison if convicted. It was unclear from jail records if he had an attorney.
CBS Dallas reported that it all started around 2:30 p.m. when police were called to an intersection after a 911 call about a person, later identified as Fischer, who was slumped over in a running vehicle.
According to police, an officer checked on the man, who was awake, and told him to turn his vehicle off. Instead, he drove away, and a slow-speed chase of about 20 mph began.
Eventually, the driver stopped and the officers got out of their vehicles and began giving verbal commands from their vehicles for the driver to drop his keys.
The man drove away from the scene again, and a slow-speed pursuit ended up on a dead end street.
An officer — Phillips — stopped and got out of his vehicle and stood near the driver's side door of the other vehicle.
At that point, the suspect made a U-turn in the cul-de-sac and began driving toward the officer, who then fired multiple shots, hitting the suspect, who died later at a hospital.
