By Emerson Clarridge
Source Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Firing one round into his forearm and neck from across the street, a Fort Worth police SWAT sniper shot a man to death when he pointed a gun at other officers, according to an account the police department released on Thursday.
Police were in a standoff with Taylor Grimes, 29, for about two and a half hours late Saturday and early Sunday after his mother called 9-1-1 to report he was using a hammer to break a vehicle’s taillight outside their house in the Eastwood section of Fort Worth.
Over a public address system, police tried to cajole Grimes to leave the house without his gun. He pushed his mother from a door at 1:34 a.m.
Earlier in the encounter, an officer spoke to Grimes by telephone.
“I need you to put the gun down, please. Mr. Taylor, can you do that for me?“ an officer asked. “A Black man talking to another Black man. Put the gun down and come talk to me.”
Five minutes after his mother left, police said, Grimes opened the front screen door and “intentionally pointed his handgun at a group of SWAT officers located near the front of the residence.”
The sniper fired at 1:39 a.m.
The police on Thursday released video recordings of the encounter. The body-worn video from the camera on the SWAT officer who shot Grimes is recorded from a distance that does not show Grimes. Video of the front of the house recorded from a police drone shows Grimes’ legs at the time he is shot. Because of the camera’s elevated angle, the roof blocks a view of Grimes’ upper body, including his hands.
The drone images show a shadow of Grimes’ raised arm, police said.
Grimes declined to speak with a crisis intervention team sergeant and officer who went to the house in the 4000 block of Wiman Drive, police said.
In an interview with a reporter, Grimes’ mother, Tijuana Bryant, said that she called 9-1-1 when it appeared that her son was going to break vehicle windows.
During the 9-1-1 call, the call-taker heard Grimes threaten to harm his mother if officers arrived.
“Ma’am, did he just threaten to kill you if cops respond?” the call-taker asked.
“Yeah,” Bryant said.
Grimes was pronounced dead in the living room about 2 a.m., according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Bryant, 51, said the police account is accurate and that the police acted appropriately.
Life had taken a toll on her son, and he was suicidal on Sunday, she said.
“He wanted them to kill him,” Bryant said.
Earlier in the interview, she said: “He got tired of living.”
Bryant said that Grimes’s anger on Saturday was fueled by a dispute with her about money from the sale of vehicles that he believed was his. He found his mother’s handgun in her purse in the bathroom, then sat near the front door and put the gun to his head and inside his mouth, she said.
Bryant said she was sitting across the living room and she did not want to leave, but her son pushed her from the door.
Bryant said that Grimes previously took medication for a mental illness. She said he was physically abused by his father and had an infant son who died earlier this year after being born prematurely.
Police said they recovered a handgun that they found next to Grimes inside the house.
The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office will review the case under a standard procedure.
Grimes was the fourth person shot by Fort Worth police officers in 2022. Three died.
Two officers shot a 38-year-old man who killed a hostage at the end of a vehicle pursuit on Interstate 35W on Aug. 28, the police have said. The man shot a woman inside the vehicle, and after police heard the gunfire, the officers shot the suspect, who died.
An officer shot a 39-year-old man who pointed a rifle at him at an apartment on Aug. 21, the police have said. The civilian survived.
Police had responded to a call of man threatening to kill himself in the 1200 block of Vincent Street.
Two officers on June 29 shot to death a 31-year-old man after, police reported to the Texas attorney general’s office, he “carried, exhibited, or used a deadly weapon” in the 3200 block of Olive Place.
Fort Worth police officers shot two people in 2021. Both died. One of the people was shot when he fired a gun at an officer, police have said. The other person was shot when he pointed what was later found to be a replica gun at an officer, police have said.
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