Texas Rangers mum as of Thursday on officer-involved shooting in Copperas Cove

By BRITTANY FHOLER

Cove Leader-Press

The woman who was shot by an off-duty Copperas Cove police officer Sunday afternoon has been identified by television media outlets as Lacresha Murray.

Murray spoke with reporters from both KWTX and KXXV and shared her perspective of the incident that ended with her going to the hospital with gunshot wounds in her arm. 

Murray told reporters that she was driving home on Robertson Avenue when she began to feel sick. She said she made a U-turn and ended in front of another truck. The driver of the truck then cut in front of her truck and then began to drive slower, she said. She passed his truck, when he then began to tailgate her truck. She said she stopped her truck at a stop sign near the 1500 block of Robertson Avenue. 

There is no stop sign on Robertson Avenue at that location, but there is a pedestrian crossing sign and a cross walk as well as stop signs on Williams Street, which intersects with Robertson at that location.

Murray told reporters that she got out of her truck, while holding her side in pain, to confront the man, when he pulled out a gun.  Murray told KXXV that she ran back to her truck when the driver started shooting, adding that all she could do was lean over as he shot her six times. 

“When I turned around to run back to my truck and get out of there, I just heard pop pop pop pop and all I could do was bend over and duck,” she told the KWTX reporter. 

She also said that the driver did not identify himself as an off-duty police officer until after neighbors had begun coming outside.

“At the time, when he’s looking back and seeing these guys recording, he turned around, then he took out his badge,” Murray told KXXV. 

Murray returned to the scene of the shooting in light blue hospital scrubs to ask officers to retrieve her phone from her truck, according to KXXV. She then gave an interview to reporters identifying herself as the victim of the shooting. 

“I’m a victim that got shot by an off-duty police officer that did not identify himself,” Murray told KXXV. “For no reason, I didn’t approach him, I didn’t threaten him. I don’t do anything. He just opened fire for no reason.”

The identity of the officer has still not been released. Lt. Kevin Miller, with the Copperas Cove Police Department’s Community Services Division, said that the officer has been placed on administrative leave. 

This is not the first time that Copperas Cove has had officer-involved shootings. The last was in 2016, when officers shot Alexander Coltart while attempting to serve a felony arrest warrant for aggravated assault at an address on N. 17th Street on August 3 of that year. After a standoff with police, Coltart exited the home hours later with a rifle, fled to North 15th Street, when he pointed his rifle towards police, resulting in officers shooting him several times. 

Coltart was hospitalized, then later arrested and charged with eight counts of aggravated assault against a public servant and one count of aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury. 

There were also two officer involved shootings within a 30-day period back in 2013, when an officer shot Amanda Lynn Jackel on January 19 of that year, when officers responded to a call for a suicidal subject on West Avenue B, where Jackel then threatened officers with a knife. An officer shot Jackel three times, and Jackel was taken to the hospital. She was then arrested and charged for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon against a public servant. 

Another officer shot Kristopher Gagliardi on February 20, 2013, when an officer responded to a domestic disturbance call on Westview Lane. Gagliardi was reported as approaching the officer with a knife in a threatening manner before being shot twice in the chest. The case was brough to a grand jury, which decided against pursuing charges against the officer. However, the family of Gagliardi filed a lawsuit in Waco District Court in 2015 against the officer and the police department. The lawsuit was later dismissed after the family requested the federal judge to drop the lawsuit. 

The Leader-Press had reached out to the Texas Department of Public Safety, which oversees the Texas Rangers who are leading the investigation, for more information on Sunday’s event. As of press time, there has been no response.

However, late Thursday afternoon, Lt. Kevin Miller issued a press release that informed media of a press conference to take place on Friday, May 28, at 9 am. at the Copperas Cove Police Department.