GRAYSON CO., TX   KXII TV          The Grayson County Jail shows News 12 its new, state of the art security system. The Grayson County Sheriff says this special type of control room is helping them better monitor inmates in the jail’s new wing. Sheriff Keith Gary says it’s a new concept, and he

This article from the June, 2013 issue of the Texas Observer, covers the death of a mental patient, shot and killed by a deputy. Author Diana Claitor (TJP director) provides details about a Texas Ranger investigation that some might call a coverup, while analyzing the interface of local mental health providers and law enforcement.
““Most officers in all states will spend more of their career dealing with the mentally ill than they will armed, assaultive or fleeing individuals,” says Kevin Elliott, a retired Los Angeles sheriff’s officer who’s now a Ph.D. candidate in criminal justice policy at Texas State University. “Yet most law enforcement officers, including sheriffs’ deputies, receive only a few hours [of training to deal with mentally ill prisoners], compared with more than 150 hours of firearms, self-defense and physical fitness training.”

Texas Jail Project is concerned, as are many people, about a person with mental disorders being shot to death during transport to a state hospital. Our deepest sympathies to his mother and the rest of the family. We are shocked to hear from them that there were no charges and no further investigation of this death and that the family has been left high and dry. . . what kind of county treats the loved ones of its citizens like this? Texas Jail Project supports efforts to find out more about how this officer came to shoot an unarmed person on the way to ta hospital. There is a link to a newstory about the shooting of Nathan Pierce by a Grayson County deputy on the next page, along with an obituary we obtained online.