Rookie police officer fired for fatally shooting an unarmed black teen in Texas was fired from the Arlington force on Tuesday.
Only days ago did Brad Miller shot and killed an unarmed teen in a suspected burglary. But the victim’s father, Adrian Taylor spoke out about it saying:
“We are all human and make mistakes, and there isn’t a winner in this,” Adrian Taylor said, hours after Miller was fired. “We are both losers.”
The police chief, Will Johnson, stated that Miller, 49, had also made other mistakes that led to “an environment of cascading consequences” including the death of Christian Taylor, 19, early on Friday, according to USA Today.
“I’m not a man of revenge, and the results can’t bring my son back,” responded Taylor, who founded and runs Comprehensive Community Solutions, a non-profit group that its website says is “committed to uplifting North Texas communities.”
But Taylor did not immediately come forward with his comments about the situation. He did however express sympathy for Miller’s family, but had no direct comment on the fact that Miller might be facing criminal charges.
“We’ll deal with that when the time comes,” he said of possible charges. “Right now, I just feel sorry for my family and his family and for the whole nation. I just hope it makes a change because this is happening too much.”
Days before the first anniversary of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by an officer in Ferguson, was Christian Taylor killed. The shooting of Brown, and the many officer-involved deaths that followed, have sparked protests across the nation since bringing awareness to the situations.
There is security footage of Taylor breaking the windshield of a car on a dealership lot right before he drove his own car into the showroom glass. Officers responded around 1:20am on Friday and spotted Taylor inside the dealership.
Taylor said he was going to steal a car, according to Johnson. Miller had entered the dealership alone without coordinating his response with other officers. Miller then gave verbal demands to Taylor who then ran toward a locked door, trying to break it open.
Officers had noticed a bulge in the suspect’s pocket, according to Johnson. He and Miller ordered Taylor to get on the ground. But according to Arlington Police Cpl. Dale Wiggins that entered the scene after Miller, Taylor instead began yelling and cursing and advancing toward Miller which is when Miler shot Taylor several times.
Officers later found out that Taylor’s pocket was full only by his wallet and cellphone.
Taylor’s father noted that he did not believe that this is something his son would do.
“I don’t know any more information than anybody else in the world,” he said. “We were hoping of finding out some more information because that (person) was not my son.”
