Cop Who Killed Christian Taylor Fired For 'Exercising Poor Judgement'

By Joanna Rothkopf  |  August 12, 2015 | 12:30am
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The police officer responsible for fatally shooting Christian Taylor, 19, in Dallas was fired on Tuesday.

Brad Miller, 49, was officially fired for “inappropriate judgment” which led to the deadly encounter at an Arlington, Texas car dealership at 1 a.m. on Friday. The cops were responding to a suspected burglary, and Miller decided to enter the dealership without notifying other officers. He ended up shooting Taylor, who was a football player at Angelo State, in the neck, chest and abdomen.

At the time, Miller was completing supervised field training.

Security footage from the Classic Buick GMC dealership shows that Taylor was “roaming freely” inside the showroom after having crashed a Jeep through a window. When officers told him to lie down, Taylor attempted to run away, but was stopped by a locked door. It was then that Miller fired the fatal shots out of fear for his own safety, according to the officer.

“This fear and feeling of isolation was the result of his poor decision to enter the building without assistance and without an arrest plan,” said Chief Will Johnson at a press conference.

The New York Times reports:

At a news conference, Chief Johnson said Tuesday that Mr. Miller made bad decisions in communicating with other officers and initially approaching Mr. Taylor on his own without a plan for arrest. There were other officers on scene, the chief told reporters, including Mr. Miller’s training officer, who tried to use a Taser to subdue the suspect.

He continued: “Based on the preponderance of evidence available to me and facts revealed by the investigative team, I have decided to terminate Officer Miller’s employment with the Arlington Police Department for exercising poor judgement.”

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Image via Getty.

 
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