Daniel Perry Shooting Video : Army Sgt. Daniel Perry, who was 33 years old, shot and killed Austin protester Garrett Foster almost three years ago. On Friday, a Travis County jury found him guilty of murder.
Perry was charged with murder, aggravated assault, and dangerous conduct in 2021 because he shot Foster during a protest in downtown Austin in July 2020. After an eight-day trial, the jury took 17 hours on Thursday and Friday to decide that Perry was not guilty of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
A year before the indictment, Texans took to the streets to protest police brutality after a white police officer in Minneapolis killed a black man named George Floyd in May 2020.
Daniel Perry Shooting Video U.S. Army sergeant found guilty
Foster went to a protest in Austin on July 25, while Perry drove for Uber downtown. Police say that Perry stopped his car near the state Capitol and honked at protesters as they walked down the street. Police say that a few seconds after that, he drove his car into the crowd.
Foster, a white man who was 28 years old and a veteran of the Air Force, was seen openly carrying an AK-47 at the time, which is legal. There are different stories about whether Foster first raised the rifle to the driver or whether Perry, who was also legally allowed to carry a gun, shot and killed Foster and then ran away.
He called the police and told them what happened. He said he shot because Foster pointed his gun at him and he had to protect himself. Perry is a white man as well.
People argued about the “stand your ground” law in Texas, which says that people can use deadly force against someone else if they think they are in danger. But Perry’s posts on social media about getting back at protesters made people wonder about the shooter’s state of mind and his claim that he was acting in self-defense.
The “stand your ground” law says that a person can’t claim self-defense if they made someone else feel threatened. Witnesses said Perry seemed to drive into the crowd in a threatening way before shots were fired, and it seemed like he did this on purpose.
Read our weekly newsletter to learn about criminal justice and the courts.