Unfair Park from p4 night. “It’s so triggering to hear that know- ing that the person who killed her could be down there just having a great time and we’re still here with no answers,” she said. Durr said she’s told the police that if they don’t do something about her mom’s death, things like this are going to keep happening. “That’s what I told the officer, too,” Durr said. “‘You’re not setting a good precedent. You’re basically saying it’s OK if you do it in an area of town where we don’t care about the people.’” DPD still insists the shooting was an acci- dent and that no one meant to kill Washing- ton. Her family still thinks otherwise and is determined to get justice. “I need this story to be told, however it needs to be told, I will make sure it will get told so we find the an- swers we need,” Durr said. ▼ POLICING E THE FATHER OF DARIUS TARVER, A UNT STUDENT KILLED BY POLICE FILES A LAWSUIT AGAINST THE CITY OF DENTON. BY SIMONE CARTER IN THE NAME OF THE SON ver since his son Darius was killed by Denton police in January 2020, Kevin Tarver and his family have lived a daily nightmare. Now, unhappy with the way the Denton Police Department has han- dled the case, Tarver has filed a federal law- suit against the city and officers involved in his son’s death. The wrongful death lawsuit won’t bring back his son, who was 23 when he died, but Tarver doesn’t want anyone else to go through what his family has endured. “That’s why I’m fighting so hard,” he said. “I don’t want anybody to feel the pain that I have to feel and so many other families do.” Darius’ death came four months before a Minneapolis cop killed George Floyd, which set off a resurgence of the Black Lives Mat- ter movement. North Texas law enforce- ment had already been under scrutiny over the police killings of Botham Jean and Atati- ana Jefferson. At the time of his death, Darius was en- rolled at the University of North Texas. He’d been on the dean’s list and majored in crimi- nal justice, on top of being part of the Na- tional Organization of Black Law Enforcement. But in the days before his death, Darius had been in a severe car wreck and suffered a head injury. After he was released from the hospital, he started “acting strangely and saying things that did not make sense,” ac- cording to court documents. On Jan. 21, 2020, Darius’ condition wors- ened, and his roommate sought help by call- ing 911. Police found Darius as he was descending an external stairwell at his Den- ton apartment complex. In his left hand, he held a frying pan, and he was “speaking in- coherently about God.” Darius did not respond to officers’ com- 66 mands, and once he reached the bottom of the steps, he stood with arms by his side for 28 seconds. The lawsuit says that even though Darius did not threaten or move toward an officer, one fired their Taser at him without warn- ing. Darius convulsed and began jumping around involuntarily; next, another officer shot him with a firearm, and he fell to the ground. At some point, a knife had fallen from Darius’ pants, and police kicked it away as he was writhing on the ground, documents show. Still, after he stood up “in a fit of fear and panic,” he was “immediately tased again.” Police shot him at least twice more, killing him. When the Observer asked the Denton Po- lice Department for comment, they said city officials were answering all media inquiries about the lawsuit. City of Denton spokesper- son Stuart Birdseye confirmed that the po- lice department had forwarded the request. “We are aware that a lawsuit has been filed but we have not been served with the lawsuit,” he said by email. “We do not com- ment on pending litigation.” Denton Police Department’s internal af- fairs didn’t find wrongdoing in the way that police had acted, according to Denton Re- cord-Chronicle. The FBI also reported no civil rights violations had occurred and a Denton County grand jury declined to indict the officer who killed Darius. In a statement, Denton City Council member Deb Armintor said she will never support defenses of indefensible actions, “especially when it comes to murder.” Ar- mintor believes the Justice Department should investigate the killing of Darius by Denton police, as well as the aftermath. “I continue to believe that the best thing we can do for Denton as elected officials is to publicly support the Tarver family and condemn the actions and inactions by city police that led to the murder of our constitu- ent, Darius Tarver, by city staff,” she said. As first reported by the Denton Record- Chronicle, the elder Tarver has accused the city’s police of failing to prepare their offi- cers for such encounters, particularly when it comes to the use of excessive force. He is seeking at least $10 million in the wrongful death suit. Tarver maintains that his son’s death could have been avoided had officers acted according to the way that they’re supposed to be trained. “This suit is not about the money, but it’s about bringing some form of accountability because even after that, I’m not stopping,” Tarver said. “There’s going to be justice be- fore it’s all over with.” ▼ ANIMALS PANDEMIC OF CRUELTY P IN DALLAS, SEVERAL DOGS HAVE BEEN SHOT IN THE LAST FEW MONTHS. BY JACOB VAUGHN eople are shooting dogs in Dallas. Since last April last, there have been nine dog shootings, according to North Texas Crime Commission. Each of these cases are still considered unsolved. Most of the dogs died from their injuries and police are still looking for the people respon- sible. For all of the cases, the Dallas Police Department is offering up to $5,000 for in- formation that may lead them to suspects. Most recently, an 8-month-old male pit bull mix was shot on Dec. 18 in the 2800 block of Peary Avenue. “The dog received vet care and is expected to make a full recov- ery,” DPD said in a press release. Another pit bull that was shot in November wasn’t so lucky. During the pandemic, there’s been an in- crease in animal cruelty cases, according to investigators with the Society for the Pre- vention of Cruelty to Animals. “Domestic abuse cases and animal cru- elty cases are on the uptick since the pan- demic. There are a lot of stressors for people – the fear of COVID, the fear of being courtesy Tarver family Darius Tarver was killed by police in Denton. cooped up inside,” Tom Adessa, an investi- gator with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said in a press release. “For people already in an abusive situation, that anger and angst come out and it has manifested into abuse of the animals.” In March last year, a large black Labrador mix was shot by a man four times. A few days later, DPD released a 35-second sur- veillance video that they said showed 35-year-old Cesar Enrique Hernandez ap- proach the dog and shoot it before walking away. The dog belonged to a business owner in the area, according to The Dallas Morning News. Hernandez was arrested for animal cruelty. The Humane Society says there’s a shocking number of animal cruelty cases ev- ery day in the U.S., but most aren’t even re- ported. “Unlike violent crimes against people, cases of animal abuse are not compiled by state or federal agencies, making it difficult to calculate just how common they are,” ac- cording to the Humane Society. “However, we can use the information that is available to try to understand and prevent cases of abuse.” Tracking these numbers got a little easier in 2016 when the FBI added animal cruelty to its National Incident-Based Reporting System. Most animal cruelty cases involve dogs, cats, horses and livestock, according to the Humane Society, and there’s also organized animal cruelty that goes hand-in-hand with other crimes, like drug trafficking. For ex- ample, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has prosecuted cases in which drug cartels were using cockfighting and dogfighting op- erations to sell narcotics. Except for Iowa, every state in the U.S. imposes felony penalties for animal >> p8 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 JANUARY 20–26, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.com dallasobserver.com
