Fort Worth, January 7 (RHC)-- In the U.S. city of Fort Worth, Texas, the city's police department faces new charges of racism and excessive force, after the release of a video showing an officer shooting a Black man in the back.
Thirty-three-year-old David Collie was left paralyzed after the encounter in July. Collie’s lawyer, Nate Washington, released a copy of a dashcam video capturing a Fort Worth police officer and a local sheriff’s deputy opening fire mere seconds after leaving their car.
Collie spent 61 days in a hospital handcuffed to his bed and was left permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Police initially accused Collie of pointing a box cutter at the officers, but the video does not appear to back up the claim.
A grand jury declined to indict Collie on aggravated assault charges. A Fort Worth police spokesperson says an investigation remains ongoing, and a case against the officer has not yet been presented to a separate grand jury.
The release of the video came less than a week after a viral video showed an African-American mother and her teenage daughters being violently arrested by a white Fort Worth officer after the woman dialed 911 to report an assault on her 7-year-old son.
