Black Man Shot by US Police at Dallas Airport Faces Assault Charges
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An African-American man who was shot by an US officer outside a Dallas airport after a domestic disturbance faces assault charges and remains in a hospital, police said.
Shawn Nicholas Diamond is being charged with aggravated assault and assault family violence following the incident in which police say he hit his ex-wife and battered her car with a traffic cone and large landscaping rocks, AP reported.
The 29-year-old Diamond, of Edgewood, Maryland, still is in stable condition, Senior Cpl. Monica Cordova, a police spokeswoman, said.
Police Chief David Brown said Friday that Diamond had rocks in his hands as he advanced menacingly toward an officer who had his gun drawn outside the Dallas Love Field terminal. Brown said Diamond was heard telling the officer, "You're going to have to shoot."
Diamond also has been charged with criminal mischief in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton. Police there said he caused $3,700 in damage to city-owned trees by driving recklessly and was released on bond earlier Friday after spending the night in jail.
He traveled to the Dallas area earlier in the week and the ex-wife, who is believed to be the mother of his children, was driving him to the airport Friday so he could return to Maryland.
During the drive, Brown said, Diamond hit the woman. After arriving at the airport terminal, he said, Diamond was pulling his luggage from the woman's car when he grabbed a traffic cone, smashed the car's windshield with it, then began picking up large landscaping rocks nearby and hurling them through the car's windows.
Surveillance video shows an officer intervening and aiming his gun at Diamond as he allegedly starts to advance with the rocks. The video has no sound.
Diamond darts around the officer, who shoots him.
Brown said the officer ordered Diamond to stay down. He said the officer fired several more shots when Diamond got up and began running.
Another officer is seen on the video brandishing a stun gun he apparently never fired.
The officer who shot Diamond has been removed from patrol duty pending an internal review of the shooting, Brown said. The officer's name has not been released.
Ron Pinkston, president of the Dallas Police Association, did not immediately return an email seeking comment Saturday. In a tweet sent Friday on its Twitter account, the police union said the officer involved in the shooting "is ok."
Efforts to reach family members or friends of Diamond in Maryland were unsuccessful Saturday as some phone numbers were disconnected and messages left at other numbers were not immediately returned.
