The former police officer who shot Lyndo Jones last month for being in his own truck has been indicted by a grand jury.
But Jones, 31, was not exactly ecstatic at the news.
“He’s still on the mend. We talked to him about the indictment earlier and he wasn’t too thrilled about it to be honest,” said Justin Moore, an attorney for Jones. “He believes Faith Johnson should have issued an indictment herself and not punted to the grand jury.”
Tweet from Jones family attorney: “If #LyndoJones shot an off duty cop multiple times in the back, there would be no BREAKING NEWS about him being fired from his job while the @Dallas_DA awaits a decision from the GJ. He would’ve been arrested & charged (if he survived the arrest). #equalprotection #waronbadcops.”
Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson said there was not as much evidence as Jones’ legal team believed to secure charges against former officer Derick Wiley without a grand jury review. Lee Merritt, another attorney for Jones who has been outspoken about Johnson’s handling of his client’s case, “didn’t have all the facts,” according to Johnson.
“He didn’t have all the information. We did,” Johnson said. “That’s why the citizens of Dallas County can count on us and make sure that we do the right thing, based on the evidence we have… so based on what we had, we had to proceed the way we did. And even with proceeding the way we did, we did it expeditiously.”
But Merritt believes otherwise.
“There was more than enough probable cause and probable cause is all that she needed in order to move forward with the charges,” he said.
Body cam and dash cam footage from the night of the shooting exist but have not been publicly released and will not be prior to the start of the trial, Johnson said, according to CBS DFW.
Jones was shot last month by Wiley, who was a 10-year veteran of the Mesquite Police in Dallas County, Texas. Wiley had been on paid administrative leave following the Nov. 8 incident, during which time officers were responding to a suspected burglary. Last week he was fired.
Wiley now faces between five years and life in prison.
The night of the shooting, a witness reported that a man — Jones — appeared to be breaking into a pickup truck. The truck in fact belonged to Jones, but he could not get the alarm to turn off.
“Lyndo Jones is a hard-working father of two young daughters who was profiled by a stranger and shot by Officer Wiley for no reason at all,” an attorney for the victim said.
Wiley, who had been with the Mesquite Police Department for a decade, shot Jones in the back and abdomen. Jones was admitted to Baylor Medical Plaza’s Intensive Care Unit after the shooting and was eventually released. Days later he returned to the hospital to be treated for an infection and possible pneumonia as a result of his wounds.
