Texas police release statement on shoot-out near Dallas captured in viral video
An attorney for Charles Williams says they released the security footage to tell his side of the story
A video of a February shoot-out between police officers and a citizen in a Dallas suburb has gone viral on social media.
The spread of the footage on the internet prompted the Corinth Police Department on Friday to issue an official statement regarding the incident.
As reported by KTVT, officers were responding to a report of a drunken driver when they made contact with Charles Williams, Jr. The person reporting the claim to police tailed the driver, Williams, to his home and the police arrived at his driveway soon after.
In the video, captured by a home security camera on the front porch of the home, Williams can be seen talking back and forth with the officers. Officers yelled for him to get on the ground as he had a gun at his hip. Williams refused.
William’s wife then came to the front porch. Williams then clapped his hands as he stepped off his porch towards the officers, who responded by firing a weapon at Williams.
Authorities state that it was a bean bag round. Williams then reached for his weapon, went behind his parked car trunk in the driveway, and began firing back at the officers, before falling down to the ground.
Video of the scene was posted to YouTube on Thursday.
WFAA reported that Williams was struck with a bullet fired by one of the officers.
No officers were hurt and Williams survived. A woman was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.
Williams was later charged with three counts of aggravated assault of a police officer but according to his lawyer, Justin Moore, Williams contends that he was not intoxicated.
“Clearly this is a man at his home being approached and accosted by law enforcement for reasons he can’t really understand. And he’s afraid,” Moore told KTVT. “If you see the video we have, he didn’t have a weapon in his hands.”
Moore released the video to social media in order for Williams’ side of the story to be told. After going viral, Corinth police made an official statement via their Facebook page, saying that “Williams was immediately hostile and threatening to the officers.”
The statement continued, “We are extremely proud of the courage and compassion of our officers who first stopped a murderous attack and then applied immediate and successful life-saving measures to Williams. We look forward to seeing Charles Williams, Jr. in court when the full details of his attempt to kill Corinth police officers will be made known.”
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