Prosecutors: Bau Tran, Arlington Cop Charged In 2018 Shooting, Had Disciplinary Flaws
FORT WORTH, Texas (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — Former Arlington police officer, Bau Tran — who was charged in the fatal shooting of a black man during a traffic stop last year — had a disciplinary record with his department that showed "bad character," prosecutors said.
Tran, 36, was fired from the Arlington Police Department after the Sept. 1, 2018, shooting of then 24-year-old O'Shae Terry and was indicted for criminally negligent homicide. If convicted of the felony, he could receive up to two years in a state jail.
Last week, Tarrant County prosecutors filed a document in state district court in Fort Worth that they called evidence of Tran's "extraneous offenses, bad acts and bad character."
Tran was helping another officer who had stopped Terry for a registration violation, when police footage showed the other officer chatting with Terry and his front seat passenger after pulling Terry's SUV over.
While responding as backup, Tran arrived and approached the passenger side door as the first officer told Terry that she smells marijuana and needed to search the vehicle.
The first officer then headed back to a patrol vehicle. And about three minutes later, the SUV's windows started to roll up and Tran grabbed onto the passenger side window, telling Terry to stop.
The SUV moved forward as three shots rung out, and as the vehicle continued moving, two more shots were fired.
Terry later died at a hospital.
In the new court document, prosecutors said Tran had nine entries on his police disciplinary record. Tran's attorney didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Two of the entries centered on a May 2, 2012, confrontation with another man while Tran was off duty. The man alleged that Tran challenged him and pulled a knife on him while identifying himself as a police officer. Tran was suspended for one day without pay.
Tran also received a written reprimand for backing his patrol car into a gate while talking on his cellphone on Nov. 11, 2012, and an oral reprimand for failure to take appropriate action and being untruthful to a police sergeant regarding an intoxicated suspect on Nov. 4, 2012.
On April 12, 2012, he received an oral reprimand for violating city policy requiring careful and prudent operation of any vehicle on city business.
And on Jan. 21, 2015, he received counseling after he failed to handcuff a suspect, making her aware that she was under arrest for a felony and have her searched. Tran also was the subject of an April 27, 2015, citizen complaint that he had called a man a bad parent and threatened to take him to jail.
Prosecutors also said that on May 21, 2017, while off duty, Tran donned his police uniform shirt before stepping from his personal car and confronting a person after a "road rage" incident.
(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)