WOLFE CITY, Texas — Some 300 people turned out at the high school football stadium in this small, majority Caucasian town of 1,400 Oct. 10 to attend the funeral of Jonathan Price, a well-respected 31-year-old Black resident shot dead by city cop Shaun Lucas days earlier.
Authorities moved to quell outrage at the killing of the unarmed city worker and personal trainer by charging Lucas with murder and firing him. Price’s family is calling for authorities to release body camera footage of the killing.
Price had helped break up a dispute between two people outside the Kwik Chek convenience store Oct. 3. His family’s lawyer says Price stepped in when he saw a man assaulting a woman there.
Lucas says he arrived after getting a report of a “possible fight.” Price greeted him, offered to shake the officer’s hand and asked him if he was “doing good.” Lucas then tried to arrest Price, claiming he “appeared intoxicated.” When Price turned away, Lucas grabbed him and used a Taser, then shot him four times, killing him.
Helen Judkins, a laid-off oil equipment worker and friend of Price’s family, talked to this Militant worker-correspondent Oct. 7. “The thing the world needs is jobs and people who care and to come together to fight for that,” she said. “There has to be justice, because this is scary for everyone,” Staria Hashaway, who grew up with Price, told NBC.