Tensions Flare Between Union And City Officials Over Firing Of Four Houston Police Officers

An emotionally charged press conference after the firing of four Houston police officers appears to have set the stage for a tense back-and-forth between the city’s officials and the police union.

The four officers, whose names were not released, were fired Thursday after bodycam footage was released showing the April death of 27-year-old Nicolas Chavez while the officers attempted to detain him.

Houston Police Officer’s Union president Joe Grimaldi addressed the firings during a press conference Thursday after Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo announced the terminations. Grimaldi referred to incident as a “tragedy,” but he defended the officers by alleging Chavez’s actions as instigating a “suicide-by-cop scenario.”

Grimaldi also called the firings “unjust and deplorable” and said appeals were already filed to overturn the decision.

“They used every non-lethal option available, all while giving verbal commands to Mr. Chavez to give up peacefully,” Grimaldi said. “They begged and pleaded with Mr. Chavez to give up for the entire 15 minutes and to no avail. As Mr. Chavez stated several times, he wanted the officers to shoot and kill him.”

Union Vice President Doug Griffith echoed Grimaldi and said the firings would only hurt the morale of Houston police officers.

“We’ve got hard-working officers out there doing their job and this just breaks the morale of this department,” Griffith said.

The incident unfolded around 9 p.m. on April 21 when the four officers responded to calls about a disturbed man running through highway traffic. Officers found Chavez wandering through a parking lot with a metal object in his hands.

Chavez is seen and heard on the video seemingly goading the police officers, repeatedly cursing and cutting himself at them as they try to calm him down.

In their attempts to detain Chavez, the officers fired three shots at him along with multiple taser and bean-bag rounds. The officers then fired 21 shots at Chavez as he pulled one of the tasers toward him using the cartridge’s cables.

Chavez was declared dead shortly afterward and the toxicology report from his autopsy found methamphetamine, amphetamine and ethanol in his body at the time of the shooting.

Acevedo said that the first three shots and use of non/less-lethal weapons were justified given Chavez’s actions up to that point, but the additional 21 gunshots were not.

“The discharge of those 21 shots by those four members are not objectively reasonable,” Acevedo said. “I don't consider them objectively reasonable, the chain of command does not consider them objectively reasonable, and I believe anyone that watches this would see they had a lot of opportunities and a lot of other options readily available to them.”

“You don't get to shoot somebody 21 times because at that time, when we discharged those 21 rounds, Mr. Chavez was at his greatest level of incapacitation.”

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner backed Acevedo’s decision, saying the number of shots officers fired at Chavez was excessive as the man presented no immediate threat when they fired. However, Turner said his stance was only related to this case and should not be read as an indictment of entire police department.

“In this case, I have concluded there was no imminent threat to any police officer, and they could have returned home to their families,” Turner said.