A Dallas police officer will face aggravated assault charges for firing into a moving car at least 13 times and killing a 21-year-old woman, authorities say. He will most likely face no consequences for taking this young woman’s life.
Thirty-nine-year-old Dallas Police Officer Christopher Hess has been placed on administrative leave pending an internal-affairs investigation into the death of Genevive Dawes, according to The Guardian.
The charges stem from a Jan. 18 incident when Hess responded to a suspicious-person call at an address near downtown Dallas. They found Dawes and Virgilio Rosales, her partner, sleeping in a Dodge SUV she had purchased a month earlier, according to a federal lawsuit brought against the city by Dawes’ mother, Mary Dawes.
The Guardian reports:
The vehicle had been reported stolen, though Dawes did not know this and thought she had purchased it legitimately, the court filing states. It adds that when the officers approached the SUV with flashlights, Dawes was startled and tried to reverse the car. A police vehicle drove into her path, causing a minor collision.
The lawsuit states: “Dawes still unaware of what was going on or who was blocking her path, pulled her vehicle forward so she could have a clear path to back up. As Dawes backed up her vehicle at a very slow rate of speed, defendants Hess and Kimpel fired at least 13 shots through the passenger side window, striking Dawes four times in the neck, her right tricep, left arm, upper left chest and right forearm.
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“Dawes’s right earlobe was also partially amputated. Dawes was transported to Baylor Hospital where she later died as a result of her injuries.”
Police later stated that Dawes and Rosales ignored “loud verbal commands” then “started the stolen vehicle and reversed a short distance striking a marked police vehicle.” (Emphasis ours.)
Daryl Washington, an attorney for the Dawes family, vigorously disputes that version of events. Washington says that the car was moving at less than 5 mph and not accelerating, he said.
“We are happy that there may be some justice in this case because the death of Genevive was definitely preventable,” he said, adding that although the charge against Officer Hess is not murder, it carries a prison sentence of between five and 99 years.
Good luck with that.
Bodycam footage has not been publicly released yet.
Read more at The Guardian.