Updated at 4:08 p.m. with additional testimony.
A Dallas police investigator testified Thursday that a former Dallas officer was reasonable when he repeatedly shot into a car, killing a 21-year-old woman.
Prosecutors rested their case Thursday morning in the trial for 42-year-old Christopher Hess. He is charged with aggravated assault by a public servant in the death of Genevive Dawes.
Defense attorneys began presenting their case. The first defense witness was Dale Richardson, the lead detective who investigated the police shooting.
Hess was one of the officers who responded to a suspicious person call Jan. 18, 2017, at an apartment complex in the 4700 block of Eastside Avenue in East Dallas where a black Dodge Journey was parked.
Dawes started to reverse and then pull forward while officers were around the vehicle. Hess opened fire on the car. Defense attorney Messina Madson said Dawes was "aggressive" and didn't want to be arrested.
Hess fired nine shots, paused and then fired three more shots into the car, according to testimony. Another officer fired once into the vehicle.
Richardson testified that he believed "that the use of force was reasonable."
He said Dawes ignored police commands and continued to drive in reverse, then forward and then in reverse again "in an area where at one point two officers had been standing."
Prosecutor George Lewis asked Richardson whether officers should consider whether others are around before shooting. The investigator said yes.
"You obviously don't want to shoot an innocent bystander."
Richardson said he concluded that Hess locked in on the car once it started moving because it became a threat to officers at that point.
"He never looks to his left again. He would not have been able to know that those two officers had moved," Richardson said.
Jurors also heard from Dallas police officer Jason Kimpel, who was the only other officer to fire a shot in the incident.
Kimpel was suspended 30 days for violating use of force protocol, but a grand jury declined to indict him.
Defense attorney Messina Madson asked Kimpel why he fired.
"At the time I pulled the trigger I thought (officer Zach) Hopkins was behind the car," Kimpel said.
Kimpel added he stopped firing because he noticed Hess was in front of him.
"If he (Hess) wouldn’t have been in front of me I would’ve shot until threat stopped," Kimpel said.
Jurors on Wednesday viewed the first-person perspective of the deadly shooting from Hess' body camera.
The video from Hess was one of two additional angles presented to the jury of eleven women and one man, after viewing video from three different officers a day earlier.
Day Three:
Day Two:
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