A Harris County grand jury decided it would take no action in the death of shooting victim Jalen Randle, a 29-year-old Black man killed by a Houston police officer a year ago.
The Houston Chronicle reported that this grand jury’s term of service ended Wednesday when it decided not to act on potential criminal charges against Shane Privette. A justice official said a new grand jury will be empaneled next week to reexamine the case.
Grand jurors were supposed to hear testimony about the April 2022 police shooting this week, and Randle’s family hoped jurors would charge Privette.
Randle’s father, Warren Randle, joined others in leaving the area where grand jurors usually meet as soon as it became evident the jury wouldn’t take action. He said he was initially disappointed but expressed hope that justice would prevail.
“This wasn’t the right jury,” Warren Randle said, according to the Chronicle. “God will send the right jury.”
A representative for District Attorney Kim Ogg stated that shortly after the jury’s decision on Wednesday, the DA called Randle’s family and said it’s likely another grand jury panel might reach a decision before the end of May.
According to the district attorney’s office, grand juries include 12 county residents who “hear all available evidence in a case.” At least nine jurors must agree to sustain an indictment.
The decision to take no action means “the case is unresolved and is presented to a subsequent grand jury,” Ogg’s office said in a statement, the Chronicle reported.
Former prosecutor Murray Newman said the lack of a decision was unusual and expressed hope that it wasn’t an attempt to solicit an indictment from a grand jury though the evidence did not warrant it.
“It’s a bad look,” Murray contended, “unless they have new evidence that the last grand jury was not privy to.”
In the year since Randle’s passing, his family and friends have attended protests, with another scheduled Thursday on the street where Privette killed him.
Privette, 31, previously was indicted after allegations that he violently assaulted a man in 2017 during an undercover drug bust. The charges were dropped two years later after a second grand jury examined fresh, unpublicized evidence.
Some protesters believe a second indictment could indicate that Privette’s police work shows a history of violent behavior.
Jed Silverman, head of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, said more nuanced evidence is needed to indict a police officer in a fatal accident, raising the question of whether the grand jury’s decision was because members needed additional evidence.
“A police officer has defenses that a normal person, a civilian, doesn’t have,” Silverman maintained, the Chronicle reported.
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