Arlington, TX officer who fatally shot Christian Taylor fired

Brad Miller, the rookie Texas police officer who fatally shot a college football player after responding to a call of an attempted burglary, has been fired for “inappropriate judgment” in his handling of the situation, officials said.

Brad Miller fired

The Arlington police chief, Will D. Johnson, said that officer Brad Miller, 49, had been fired for making mistakes in the fatal shooting of Christian Taylor, 19, which included entering the building without his more experienced partner and which led to “an environment of cascading consequences.” Officer Miller was hired last fall and was still in training when the shooting occurred early Friday morning.

Shooting

Officials say Taylor, who was a football player Angelo State University, was shot around 1am when he was confronted by officers who responded to a call about an attempted burglary at a car dealership.

Video released by officials show Taylor, in what appears to be in a drunken state, crashing his car into the dealership gate. He then enters the dealership, roams around until he finds a car that he begins to vandalize. It is believed that Taylor crashed through the dealership office with his car. The video shows officers enter the dealership office and moments later Taylor is dead.

At a news conference, Chief Johnson said Officer Brad Miller made bad decisions in communicating with other officers and initially approaching Mr. Taylor on his own without a plan for an arrest.

There were other officers at the scene, the chief told reporters, including Officer Miller’s training officer, who tried to use a Taser to subdue Mr. Taylor.

“Based on a preponderance of evidence available to me and facts revealed by the investigative team,” Chief Johnson said, “I have decided to terminate Officer Miller’s employment with the Arlington Police Department for exercising poor judgment.”

Read more at the New York Times