{"id":12937,"date":"2014-02-19T15:14:52","date_gmt":"2014-02-19T22:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?p=12937"},"modified":"2014-02-19T15:16:25","modified_gmt":"2014-02-19T22:16:25","slug":"cop-cleared-after-killing-innocent-grandpa-wrong-address","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/cop-cleared-after-killing-innocent-grandpa-wrong-address\/","title":{"rendered":"Cop Cleared After Killing Innocent Grandpa @ Wrong Address"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHe just unloaded his gun in rapid fire. One right after the other, in succession. There wasn\u2019t any hesitation.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Jerry

Jerry Waller & Grandson<\/p><\/div>\n

Fort Worth, TX —<\/strong>\u00a0An elderly man was slain in his own garage because police \u201cinadvertently began searching\u201d the wrong address while investigating a burglary call.\u00a0 Spotting a man who appeared \u201cstandoffish\u201d in his own garage, police opened fire, killing a 72-year-old grandfather.\u00a0 After months of investigation, the officer has been cleared and is back on the streets.<\/p>\n

In the earliest hour of May 28th, 2013, Jerry Waller was awoken after midnight to the sound of his neighbor\u2019s home burglar alarm. Doing the neighborly thing, Mr. Waller got out of bed to check on the family next door. He took a pistol with him as his wife stayed behind.<\/p>\n

Fort Worth Police were dispatched and arrived at the scene at 12:58 a.m.\u00a0 Only the officers didn\u2019t go to the address of the alarm. \u00a0 They \u201cinadvertently began searching\u201d the property of Jerry and Kathy Waller at 404 Havenwood \u2014 across the road from the automated burglary alert.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Jerry & Kathy Waller had been married 46 years.<\/p><\/div>\n

Officers B.B. Hanlon and R.A. \u201cAlex\u201d Hoeppner walked onto the Wallers\u2019 property and approached the darkened house with their flashlights lit.\u00a0 As Officer Hoeppner neared the residence, he spotted Mr. Waller, who was cautiously surveying the scene from inside his garage.<\/p>\n

A confrontation ensued between the homeowner and the intruders carrying guns and flashlights.\u00a0 Unfortunately only one side survived to tell their version of the events.<\/p>\n

The undisputed fact is that Waller was shot 7 times in his own garage.<\/p>\n

Officer Hoepnner claims that when he spotted Mr. Waller, he identified himself and commanded the homeowner to drop his gun.\u00a0 According to the police narrative, Waller was hesitant to comply with commands of the strangers.\u00a0 After momentarily setting his gun down, Waller allegedly \u201cfreaked out\u201d and \u201clost it\u201d and picked the gun back up and assumed a \u201cready\u201d stance, aiming his pistol at police officers.\u00a0 Hoepnner opened fire.<\/p>\n

The senior citizen was struck multiple times and was pronounced dead at the scene.\u00a0 His slanted driveway was stained with a trail of his blood and his distraught wife had to be taken to the hospital for emotional distress.<\/p>\n

The loss was devastating to the community.\u00a0 \u201cThey are just a nice retired couple, that loved working in their yard, having family over, and grandkids,\u201d\u00a0said Becky Haskin<\/a>, a neighbor who knew the Wallers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he panicked,\u201d\u00a0Haskin said<\/a>\u00a0to the Star-Telegram. \u201cHe just unloaded his gun in rapid fire. That\u2019s what I heard. It woke me up. I thought it was in my back yard \u2014 just rapid fire, one right after the other, in succession. There wasn\u2019t any hesitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The burglary alert across the street was a false alarm.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrigger Happy\u201d<\/h3>\n

The department did not offer many details of the incident for some time, but insisted that \u201cofficers felt threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the department investigated itself for wrongdoing, the Waller family expressed displeasure with what they considered deliberate \u201cmisrepresenting\u201d of details of the killing by the department.\u00a0 They felt so uneasy with the media coverage that they felt compelled to issue a\u00a0public statement<\/a>\u00a0demanding a full investigation.\u00a0\u00a0 The statement read, in part:<\/p>\n

We were deeply troubled by the police department misrepresenting details of the incident in their interviews with the media.\u00a0 We would ask that the police refrain from providing details to the media until a thorough investigation has been completed, preferably by an independent body.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"

Kathy Waller, widow<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

His widow, Kathy Waller, said she was \u201cdisgusted\u201d by the police.\u00a0 \u201cMarried 46 years, and then somebody gets a little trigger-happy and away they go,\u201d\u00a0she told WFAA<\/a>. \u00a0\u201dI miss him dearly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father never stepped outside of his garage,\u201d\u00a0said son Chris Waller<\/a>. \u201cHe was shot multiple times in the chest only a few steps away from the doorway to his kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the autopsy report, Waller suffered three bullets to the chest, a shot to the abdomen, a shot to the hand, and two grazing wounds to his wrist and forearm.<\/p>\n

Details were slow to emerge, but a report finally admitted that the police went to the wrong address because of \u201cpoor lighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two officers were\u00a0patrolling the streets<\/a>\u00a0again in under two months, without discipline.<\/p>\n

Hoeppner gave the following\u00a0statements<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026the whole entire time I\u2019m giving commands, \u201cDrop the gun, drop the gun, drop the gun.\u201d \u201cAnd he\u2019s not dropping it and he had this attitude towards us that\u2026it was almost an attitude of, you can\u2019t tell me to drop my gun.\u201d \u201cYou know what I mean?\u201d \u201cLike who are you to telling me to, you know what I mean.\u201d \u201cHe kind of had an attitude kind of very hostile towards us\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty sure I told you this; but I wanna reiterate that he\u2026umm, his\u2026his attitude towards us was very malicious.\u201d\u00a0\u201cIt\u2026it was not, pro-police at all.\u201d \u201c He did not seem happy that, that we were there.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2026if someone who\u2026who\u2026who\u2026is\u2026.you get someone out there who would follow the gun laws; and\u2026and that understands that a police officer is telling you this, that you\u2019re not gonna sit there and hold the gun\u00a0 still; cause\u2026.I mean like\u2026it\u2019s almost as if he was challenging me.\u201d \u201cAnd the fact\u2026the reason I say that is I mean, his\u2026.the way he stood; I mean\u2026I mean his comments as in, \u2018why\u2019\u2026\u201d \u201c You know like, what\u2026what person in their right man\u2026mind would ask a peace officer\u2026a, a law enforcement officer\u2026\u2019why\u2019 \u2026when he tells you and give you verbal commands that we\u2019re being serious\u2026, drop the gun, you know.\u00a0Your law abiding citizen is not going to tell\u2026 going to ask you, why.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The way he talks to me is a very stand-off attitude.\u201d \u201c You know\u2026you know when he say, get\u2026get the light outta my eyes, it wasn\u2019t please sir; get the light outta my eyes.\u201d \u201cHey, can you please get the light outta my eyes.\u201d \u201cIt was, get the light outta my eyes!\u201d \u201cYou know, it was real standoff, like\u2026you know\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that I think back on it and you know, had all this time to think on it. I think his intentions as soon as he walked out that door and saw me and he didn\u2019t want to put the gun down, I firmly believe that he was trying to find a point and time where\u2026when\u2026when he could shoot me at when\u2026when\u2026when it was the most beneficial time for him to shoot me.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After hearing Officer Hoeppner\u2019s partner swear under oath that Mr. Waller pointed his gun, a Tarrant County grand jury\u00a0declined to indict<\/a>\u00a0the rookie cop.\u00a0 Both officers had been with the department for under one year.<\/p>\n

The most recent report states that that Waller told Hoeppner to \u201cget that light out of my eyes,\u201d drawing questions about whether the victim could see who the intruders were through the blinding beam of light.<\/p>\n

The police narrative claims that Waller did eventually put his gun on top of a car, but he then \u201cscrambled<\/a>\u201d to pick it back up.\u00a0 Next, allegedly, Waller \u201cswung the handgun in the direction of Officer Hoeppner,\u201d prompting the rapid fire response.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Diagram of Jerry Waller\u2019s garage. (Source: Fort Worth Police)<\/p><\/div>\n

The report admits that the police did not activate their vehicle emergency lights, nor did they use their sirens.\u00a0 They also did not activate their lapel microphones.\u00a0 Why?<\/p>\n

Jerry Waller\u2019s death may never be fully understood, but the tragedy of the situation remains.<\/p>\n

Was the situation preventable?\u00a0 Could officers have avoided this situation by utilizing their lights and sirens?\u00a0 Did the officers shoot irresponsibly after getting spooked by a strange man?\u00a0 Did Mr. Waller think he was confronting burglars?<\/p>\n

Fort Worth Police Department<\/a>
\nPhone:\u00a0 (817) 335-4222
\nEmail:\u00a0\u00a0Contact Us<\/a>
\nFacebook:\u00a0\u00a0FWPD<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHe just unloaded his gun in rapid fire. One right after the other, in succession. There wasn\u2019t any hesitation.\u201d Fort Worth, TX —\u00a0An elderly man was slain in his own garage because police \u201cinadvertently began searching\u201d the wrong address while … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12937"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12940,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12937\/revisions\/12940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}