Murder trial to begin in Austin for Army sergeant who claimed to shoot BLM protestor in self-defense in 2020

The murder trial for an Army sergeant who shot and killed a protester during riots that rocked the US in the summer of 2020 began on Monday in Austin, Texas. 

During the BLM riots and protests that broke out across the US and in the Texas state capitol in the wake of the death of George Floyd, Sgt. Daniel Perry, was stationed at Fort Hood. Video from that night shows the sequence of events, with Perry's car being stopped by protestors in the street.



According to police, the night of July 25, 2020, Perry was driving for Uber in downtown Austin to make extra money and came across a large group of protesters illegally blocking city streets as was common in Austin and elsewhere during the weeks of rioting.

Perry's defense team alleges that the protesters encircled his car and began pounding on his vehicle. Among the protestors was 28-year-old Garrett Foster, who was armed with an AK-47.

According to Perry, Foster raised the firearm at him, prompting him to open fire with a handgun he legally carried for self-defense. Attorney for Perry Doug O’Connell told Fox News, "When Garrett Foster pointed his AK-47 at Daniel Perry, Daniel had two tenths of a second to defend himself. He chose to live."

O’Connell added, "It may be legal in Texas to carry an assault rifle in down town Austin. It doesn’t make it a good idea. If you point a firearm at someone, you’re responsible for everything that happens next."
 
Perry drove away from the scene to a safe location and called 911 to report what happened. He was interviewed by officers that night and released, but a grand jury returned an indictment for murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon a year later. 

The well-respected lead investigator who is nicknamed the "godfather of the homicide unit," Detective David Fugitt, claimed in an August 2021 sworn affidavit that prosecutors under Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza, who has been funded by George Soros, forced him to remove exculpatory evidence from his grand jury presentation.
 
Fugitt wrote in the affidavit, "It became clear to me that the District Attorney’s Office did not want to present evidence to the grand jury that would be exculpatory to Daniel Perry and/or to show that witness statements obtained by the family of Garrett Foster and/or their attorneys were inconsistent with prior interviews such ‘witnesses’ gave the police and/or the video of the incident in question."

An investigation revealed that Garza’s office has dropped hundreds of felony cases but also sought indictments against almost two-dozen APD officers who responded to the 2020 riots, including one during which rioters attempted to take seize the downtown Austin police headquarters.