Police Shooting News

Fort Worth police officer terminated following shooting investigation

Fort Worth police cars

FWPD

A Fort Worth police officer has been terminated following his involvement in an off-duty shooting. According to a release, Officer William Martin was let go on October 18, following an investigation into an incident that occurred on September 3.

On Tuesday, September 3, South Division patrol officers responded to a call about a hit-and-run accident on I-35 near Morningside Drive.

Martin called 911 and reported that he had been hit by a man in a red Ford F-150, and said the driver left after hitting Martin’s vehicle. Martin followed the driver, got out of his vehicle, and fired a gun into the man’s truck. The driver was hit by gunfire and taken to the hospital; he survived his injuries.

Martin had been with the department for 19 years and was assigned to the Support Bureau at the time of the incident.

An investigation by the Major Case Unit determined that probable cause existed for the offense of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Martin was arrested on September 20 for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and booked into the Tarrant County Jail.

Following his arrest, he was placed on detached duty, and the Internal Affairs Unit did its own administrative investigation. Martin’s chain of command subsequently determined that the level of force used was unjustified. Fort Worth police chief Neil Noakes concurred, and terminated Martin’s employment with the department.

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Death Penalty

Tarrant County man gets death for murder of convenience store owner

Tarrant County Sheriff's Office

Christopher Turner

A man received the death penalty for his 2020 cold-blooded execution of a convenience store owner.

According to a release from the office of Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Phil Sorrells, a Tarrant County jury sentenced Christopher Karon Turner, 48, to death on November 20 for executing convenience store owner Anwar Ali during a robbery. Tarrant County Assistant District Attorneys Charles Boulware and Allenna Bangs represented the state.

On March 27, 2020, at around 6:15 am, Turner, a convicted felon, wore a surgical mask and a glove and entered the Super Big Country Mart in an unincorporated area of Tarrant County south of Fort Worth. There, he held a gun to the back of Anwar Ali, the 62-year-old store owner, and walked him through the store.

Ali did everything Turner demanded, including opening the cash register to give him money. And yet Turner forced Ali into the bathroom and onto his knees, and shot him in the neck. Ali was discovered, dead in the bathroom, about an hour later.

Turner fled the store in Ali's Toyota minivan with the money from the register and Ali's wallet. In the van, he found more than $50,000 cash in a black bag. Over the next few days, Turner went on a shopping spree, buying cars, jewelry, drugs, clothes, and more. He and others used cash and a credit card that belonged to Ali.

Turner fled to Colorado where U.S. Marshals arrested him. On his body they found a firearm which was determined to be the murder weapon.

"This was a premeditated, cold-blooded murder," Boulware told the jury. "From the moment he was charged with this crime, he has tried to escape responsibility."

Bangs noted that before this trial began, Turner obtained the names of jurors and their telephone numbers, and gave them to an inmate charged with murder. At the trial on November 20, as Bangs addressed the jury, Turner tried to hold up a sign to the jury but was handcuffed by Sheriff's deputies who removed him from the courtroom, while he yelled out "she lied."

Ali came to the United States from Pakistan decades ago to pursue the American dream. Ali's son, Hussein, spoke in the courtroom after the death penalty was announced. "Thank you for giving us justice," Ali said. "I hope there are no more devils like this person."