Garrett Foster's family speaks out on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's decision to pardon Daniel Perry
COLLIN COUNTY — Garrett Foster's family is speaking out about the Gov. Abbott's decision to pardon Daniel Perry, who was convicted of murder after a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Austin.
"I think they're using my dead child to make a political statement," said Garrett's mother, Sheila Foster.
Her heart still aches nearly four years after losing her son.
Garrett was a 28-year-old Air Force veteran when he joined Black Lives Matter protesters in Downtown Austin in the summer of 2020, along with his fiancé Tiffany.
Daniel Perry was an Army sergeant who had posted on social media that, "I might have to kill a few people on my way to work, they are rioting outside my apartment complex."
Perry made the post shortly before he ran a red light and drove into the crowd of protestors.
Foster, who had an assault rifle strapped over his shoulder, was shot and killed when he approached the car driven by Perry, who also had a gun.
A Travis County jury found Perry guilty of murder and sentenced him to 25 years in prison.
On Thursday, Gov. Abbott approved a full pardon of Perry recommended by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles saying, "Texas has one of the strongest 'Stand Your Ground' laws of self-defense and cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive district attorney...I will use my constitutional authority to override his leftist policies when needed."
Perry was immediately released from prison and Foster's mother received a phone call at her home in rural Collin County.
Sheila recalled the moment she was notified saying, "The first thing I said after I collapsed was, 'Garrett I'm so sorry.'"
Foster's family say multiple witnesses testified during the trial that he wasn't pointing his gun at Perry when he was shot, which led to a murder conviction that she says now means nothing.
Milton Wright, Foster's grandfather, says "it's making a mockery of our justice system."
Sheila says the governor's decision puts anyone who legally carries a firearm in Texas at serious risk.
"You can shoot somebody if you see their gun and it scares you — that's what he's saying," she said.
When asked what Sheila would tell the governor she said, "I would ask him what the heck he is thinking and what kind of precedent is he setting in an open-carry state...He's saying Garrett deserved to die because he was carrying a gun."
The Foster family is hanging on to a slim hope that a possible lawsuit could be filed or a higher court could intervene and undo the governor's pardon.
Sheila's anger only temporarily hides the anguish that she says will return when another year passes without her son in July.
The full pardon from Gov. Abbott can be found here.