Officer Brad Miller showed "poor judgment" when he decided to go into a car dealership showroom alone and without a plan to confront an erratic burglary suspect, Police Chief Will D. Johnson said Tuesday.
Citing the decision and "serious concerns" about whether Miller needed to fatally shoot the suspect, 19-year-old college football player Christian Taylor, Johnson announced at a news conference that he fired the rookie officer.
The firing came just four days after the shooting. Taylor's death became the latest use-of-force incident between a white officer and an unarmed black suspect to draw national furor.
"This is an extraordinarily difficult case," Johnson said. "Decisions were made that had catastrophic outcomes."
But Johnson said that despite his concerns over Miller's level of force, he can't say whether Miller was justified in shooting Taylor. That will be up to the courts to decide, and they'll have to do so without video evidence of the shooting, he said.
Police will continue to investigate the shooting and expect to present it to a Tarrant County grand jury.
Johnson said he fired Miller primarily because the officer "created an environment of cascading consequences that produced an unrecoverable outcome" by walking into the building alone and without a plan to confront Taylor.
Miller's attorney, John Snider, said he was reviewing the chief's statement before making any comments.
The Arlington Municipal Patrolman's Association, the local police union, said in a statement late Tuesday that it supports Miller's right to be "judged fairly and completely on facts instead of a snapshot developed in only days."
"Investigations take time and as Chief Johnson acknowledged, this investigation is not close to being concluded," the statement reads. "With that said, our thoughts and prayers are with the Taylor family in this time of grief. We again ask that citizens obey the commands of police officers in order to prevent these tragedies from occurring in the future."
Johnson announced the firing and laid out the timeline of the shooting, Tuesday afternoon, ahead of a protest held in Arlington.
Miller and five other officers went early Friday morning to the car dealership in the 1400 block of the East Interstate 20. Taylor had driven a car through the showroom door.
Johnson said at one point, Taylor and one officer talked to each other on either side of locked glass doors at the showroom. The officer said he told Taylor to surrender. Instead, Taylor held up a set of keys and said he was going to steal a car, police said.
Officers noticed that Taylor had a "bulge" in the pocket of his shorts, which Johnson said turned out to be a wallet and cellphone. Johnson said that not knowing what the bulge was, it was reasonable for officers to assume that Taylor could be armed.
Taylor tried to go through the locked doors to where the officer was standing, Johnson said.
The officers didn't know whether Taylor was the only suspect and decided to set up a perimeter around the building for safety concerns, Johnson said. But Miller spotted the broken glass that Taylor had driven through and went inside.
Taylor ran to a different part of the building and tried to break through a glass door to get away, Johnson said.
Miller followed Taylor and told him to get on the ground. Taylor turned to Miller and began to "rapidly approach while cursing," Johnson said. He said Miller told investigators he retreated while giving commands.
Cpl. Dale Wiggins, a 19-year veteran who was training Miller in the field, had come into the building distressed that Miller had gone in alone without telling him, Johnson said. Wiggins saw Taylor approaching Miller and removed his Taser from its holster. Johnson said Wiggins told investigators he heard a pop and thought it was Miller firing his Taser, but it turned out to be Miller firing his gun the first time, though it's unclear if he hit Taylor.
Taylor continued to advance toward Miller, police said. Wiggins fired his Taser, and then Miller fired his gun three more times. Taylor was about 7 to 10 feet away from Miller when the shots were fired. Miller and Taylor never made physical contact, Johnson said.
Miller, who didn't realize Wiggins was nearby, believed he and Taylor were alone in the showroom and feared that Taylor could overpower him, Johnson said."This fear and feeling of isolation was the result of his poor decision to enter the building alone and without an arrest plan," Johnson said.
Johnson said that Taylor, who had been arrested in 2013 on a drug possession charge, exhibited "abnormal behavior." He had been seen on surveillance footage wearing sunglasses and jumping on top of a car in the parking lot.
Johnson said Taylor wasn't compliant with officers and walked toward Miller, despite the fact that the officer's gun was drawn. Johnson said officers are supposed to draw their guns when entering a building during a burglary.
But Miller put himself and the other officers in a situation with "undue risk" by not going into the showroom with a cover officer or communicating his intentions, Johnson said.
Officers are rarely fired following shootings.
In Dallas, Police Chief David Brown in 2013 fired two officers involved in separate non-fatal shootings, citing questionable tactics. They were the first Dallas officers to be indicted for shootings in 40 years. Both officers face felony criminal charges.
Still, for all the talk of Miller's fateful tactics, the fact that Taylor was killed played a major role in Johnson's decision. Arlington Lt. Christopher Cook said that had the officers subdued and arrested Taylor, "I don't think we'd be having a news conference."
Wiggins remained on paid administrative leave on Tuesday. Miller does not have the right to appeal his firing. He graduated from the police academy in March and was days away from being able to respond to calls without a field training officer watching over him.
About three dozen people turned out to a protest at the police station Tuesday night. Though many in the crowd were pleased Miller was fired, they said they want to see him go to trial and face criminal charges.
"He got what he deserved. I'm just glad that he didn't get off with killing him," said Ricinda Turner, 19.
"He was like my best friend," she said of Taylor. "He didn't deserve what he got."
Two Arlington residents who attended the protest holding signs that read "All lives matter, criminals lives matter less" said they felt the case wasn't investigated fully and the chief decided to fire Miller "prematurely."
"The officer was a rookie; it seems like when you're in that kind of situation things happen fast as it appears they did," said Dane Renfroe, 49. "If the man deserves to be fired, he deserves to be fired. It seems kind of convenient it happened after protesters were asking for him to be fired."
Johnson said he has expressed remorse to Taylor's family. Taylor was a Mansfield Summit High graduate and was about to begin his sophomore year at Angelo State University.
Arlington NAACP president Alisa Simmons said Tuesday night that people can "talk about a national problem but it's here in this community as well."
She said she has been visiting with Taylor's family and they are "struggling."
"When you're in his home you see the pictures and the athletic awards and that's when you really get to know the boy in that video," she said. "We don't know what was going on with him that night."
Johnson said he hopes the information he released Tuesday can help the community begin to heal.
"This has been an extremely difficult experience for many people," Johnson said. "Some communities in our nation have been torn apart by similar challenges. Arlington has always been a community that has come together during difficult times."
Staff writer Naomi Martin contributed to this report.
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