Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has voiced his support for pardoning Daniel Perry after the 37-year-old U.S. Army sergeant fatally shot a man who approached his car with a rifle during a Black Lives Matter protest in Austin in 2020.
Perry was driving for Uber on July 25, 2020, when he encountered a road that was blocked by demonstrators. As Perry reportedly turned onto the street at around 10 miles per hour, he came to a stop and found himself surrounded by demonstrators, including 28-year-old Garrett Foster. Foster, who was open carrying an AK-47-style rifle approached Perry’s car before Perry opened fire, killing Foster.
During his trial, Perry’s defense team argued that he had fired in self-defense after Foster raised his rifle toward Perry but the jury ultimately found him guilty.
The day after the verdict, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statement, saying he is seeking to pardon Perry and is awaiting a recommendation from the state Board of Pardons and Paroles. Under Texas law, the governor cannot issue a pardon without a recommendation from the Board of Pardons and Paroles.
Paxton endorsed Abbott’s pardon plan in an April 8 tweet, saying “I agree with @GregAbbott_TX on this 100%.”
“Self-defense is a God-given right, not a crime, and Sgt. Daniel Perry should be pardoned because he does not deserve to go to prison,” Paxton added in an emailed statement to NTD News.
Paxton also referenced financial support that billionaire liberal megadonor George Soros gave to the Democrat prosecutor who brought the case, Travis County District Attorney José Garza.
“Unfortunately, the Soros-backed DA in Travis County cares more about the radical agenda of dangerous Antifa and BLM mobs than justice. Rogue prosecutors have weaponized the judicial system, and they must be stopped,” Paxton said.
Case Details
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, then-Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said officers heard “two separate volleys of gunfire.” Officers made their way to the crowd, where they found Foster with multiple gunshot wounds.
Manley said the second volley of gunfire was fired by protesters who witnessed the initial shooting incident involving Foster and Perry. Manley said Perry left the scene and called 911 to report the incident.
It took nearly a year after the 2020 shooting incident before Garza’s office brought charges against Perry.
Perry’s defense team initially sought to have the charges dismissed.
Perry’s attorneys included an affidavit from David Fugitt, a detective, who said that Garza’s office forced him to alter his testimony.
Fugitt said Garza “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.”
The judge overseeing the case, Cliff Brown, said he didn’t see anything that rose to the level of egregious conduct to warrant having the case dismissed.
During the case, Garza’s prosecution team argued Perry could have taken other courses of action when demonstrators began surrounding his car, including driving away instead of firing his handgun.
Prosecutors also focused on social media posts and messages that Perry made prior to the shooting incident, which they argued indicated Perry was predisposed to taking violent action. In June 2020, Perry wrote to a friend that he might “kill a few people on my way to work. They are rioting outside my apartment complex.”
A friend responded, “Can you legally do so?” to which Perry replied, “If they attack me or try to pull me out of my car then yes.”
In another instance, Perry wrote, “I might go to Dallas to shoot looters.”
On the side of the defense, witnesses presented evidence that Foster also had a prior history of dangerous behavior. During the case, senior Austin police officer Brent Cleveland testified that he had seen officers warn Foster at previous protests that Foster had been carrying his rifle in a dangerous manner.
Cleveland testified that Foster was “visibly and verbally not receptive” to the police criticism. Cleveland also testified that the way Foster carried his rifle meant that if he had raised the barrel even a small amount, it could be considered threatening and the officer himself would have shot in such a situation.
Foster gave an interview with a journalist shortly before his death, in which he was asked about his AK-47 and whether he thought he would need to use it. Foster said, “If I use it against the cops, I’m dead, and I think all the people that hate us and want to say shit to us are too big of pussies to stop and actually do anything about it.”
The defense team played the 911 phone call Perry made after the shooting. In the call, Perry said “I made a wrong turn, and I panicked,” and Foster “aimed an AK-47 at me, and I didn’t know what to do.”
DA Responds to Paxton
Following the verdict, DA Garza said he is grateful for his team of prosecutors and victim counselors that took part in the case, and said “they worked hard to make a complete and accurate presentation of the facts to the jury.”
In response to Paxton’s comments about a pardon for Perry, Garza shared a statement with Fox News in which he changed the topic to open criminal allegations that Paxton is facing, saying the Texas attorney general has his “own legal troubles” to worry about.
“The Texas Attorney General is currently under felony indictment and under a federal criminal investigation,” Garza said. “He should focus on his own legal troubles instead of attempting to interfere with the work of a Travis County jury.”
Paxton was arrested and indicted on state-level securities fraud charges in August 2015 but the case has yet to go to trial after nearly eight years.
Garza’s office did not respond to an additional NTD News request for comment before this article was published.