Daniel Perry. (Image: Austin Police Department via AP, File)
The governor of Texas voiced plans on Saturday to pardon an Army sergeant convicted of murdering a Black Lives Matter protester. The defense for Daniel Perry, 37, said that Garrett Foster, 28, was armed with an AK-47. Witnesses said that the victim, himself an Air Force veteran, never raised the barrel of the gun. Prosecutors told jurors it was the defendant who started that fateful July 25, 2020, confrontation with protesters by driving into the crowd, if not striking anyone.
Gov. Greg Abbott argued on Saturday that prosecutors and the jury got it wrong.
“Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney,” he said. “Unlike the President or some other states, the Texas Constitution limits the Governor’s pardon authority to only act on a recommendation by the Board of Pardons and Paroles. Texas law DOES allow the Governor to request the Board of Pardons and Paroles to determine if a person should be granted a pardon. I have made that request and instructed the Board to expedite its review. I look forward to approving the Board’s pardon recommendation as soon as it hits my desk. Additionally, I have already prioritized reining in rogue District Attorneys, and the Texas Legislature is working on laws to achieve that goal.”
I am working as swiftly as Texas law allows regarding the pardon of Sgt. Perry. pic.twitter.com/HydwdzneMU
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) April 8, 2023
Jurors on Friday convicted Perry of murder, though they acquitted him of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon regarding another protester.
“We’re happy with the verdict,” Garrett’s father Stephen Foster said, according to KVUE. “We’re very sorry for his family as well. There’s no winners in this. Just glad it’s over.”
“I’m grateful to our dedicated career prosecutors and victims’ counselors who tried this case,” Travis County District Attorney José Garza said, according to KXAN. “They worked hard to make a complete and accurate presentation of the facts to the jury. Our hearts continue to break for the Foster family. We hope this verdict brings closure and peace to the victim’s family.”
A group of protesters were out marching that night. Police said that Perry’s car turned on Congress Avenue near 4th Street. Protesters reportedly testified that the vehicle sped at him. They slapped and kicked the car. Perry, who had been in the area driving for Uber, opened fire five times. Foster never opened fire. The prosecution said his gun had no round in the chamber, and his safety was on.
“I made a wrong turn,” Perry told 911, according to KXAN. “A guy pointed a freakin’ weapon at me and I panicked. I don’t know what to do. I’m just an Uber driver. I made a wrong turn. I’ve never had to shoot someone before. They started shooting back at me, and I got out of the area.”
“I could tell that he was visibly distraught,” former Austin police officer Joshua Visi, who responded to the scene, testified. “I could hear the nervousness, the quiver in his voice.”
Prosecutors argued the shooting was premeditated, however. They presented evidence that showed Perry harbored violent attitudes toward people he called “looters” and people “rioting.”
“I might have to kill a few people on my way to work,” he wrote in June 2020, according to The Austin Chronicle. “They are rioting outside my apartment complex,”
“I might go to Dallas to shoot looters,” he wrote in another post.
In one reported exchange with friend Michael Holcomb, Holcomb chastised Perry regarding hypothetically shooting a protester and self-defense.
“We went through the same training … Shooting after creating an event where you have to shoot, is not a good shoot,” Holcomb said.
Prosecutors argued that Perry was angry when turning because he had wanted to meet with a woman who had been texting him for money, according to The Austin American-Statesman.
“This is an age-old story about a man who couldn’t keep his anger under control,” prosecutor Guillermo Gonzalez said. “It’s not about police, and it’s not about protest marchers.”
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