A Hays County grand jury has decided that two San Marcos police officers will not face charges in the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Thomas Anthony Hawkins III, finding the June 26 encounter justified after reviewing body-camera footage and a state investigation into the deadly confrontation.
The Hays County Criminal District Attorney’s Office announced the grand jury’s decision Friday, according to the San Marcos Record. A county alert posted by Hays County states plainly that “the Grand Jury determined the shooting was justified and did not return an indictment in the matter.”
Hawkins was wanted on active warrants for violent offenses in three counties, including Hays County, officials said, as reported by FOX San Antonio. San Marcos police were notified he was staying at an apartment in the Mission Trail at El Camino Real complex on June 26, prompting officers to respond.
A Tense Standoff at a Third-Floor Apartment
Three officers went to the complex that day, with two approaching the third-floor apartment while a third kept watch from the balcony below, per the same account. Hawkins’ brother and a second resident told police there were weapons inside the apartment, and the brother offered to try to coax Hawkins outside peacefully.
Officers then heard voices and what sounded like a struggle inside before the brother pushed Hawkins out of the apartment, officials said. According to prosecutors, Hawkins was holding a knife in his right hand when he immediately turned and lunged at one of the officers.
Both Officers Opened Fire
Both officers fired their weapons, striking Hawkins multiple times, and he died in the shooting, the district attorney’s office said. The Texas Rangers, the Department of Public Safety unit responsible for reviewing officer-involved shootings, investigated the case with assistance from the San Marcos Police Department.
Grand jurors reviewed body-camera footage from both officers along with findings from the Texas Rangers’ investigation before reaching their decision not to indict, the district attorney’s office said. The sequence of events — including the account of Hawkins holding a knife and lunging at an officer — comes from officials and prosecutors, as reported in coverage from the San Antonio Express-News.
Echoes of a Previous San Marcos Case
This is not the first time a Hays County grand jury has cleared a San Marcos officer in a fatal shooting. In a separate case involving Malachi Williams, a grand jury similarly found no wrongdoing, and the Williams family said at the time it was considering pursuing a civil case against the officer involved, according to CBS Austin. Elsewhere in Central Texas, a McLennan County grand jury likewise cleared two Waco police sergeants and a Waco officer of wrongdoing in the shooting death of a Waco man, per the Waco Tribune-Herald.
