ustxtxb_obs_2005_12_16_50_00011-00000_000.pdf

photo by Steve Satterwhite weeks following Rita, the martial law atmosphere prevailed. Tyrone Jones may well have been a casualty of the police’s siege mentality. “The citizen was the enemy. It was feedback from Katrina or just warinessfor whatever reason,” said one eyewitness to the Jones incident. The eyewitness, an imposing man in his mid-forties with a shaved head, asked not to be named because he fears police retaliation. His account, coupled with a description of a 30-second police video, that captured some of the incidentwhich at press time is still not publicare the only public information available on the incident. The Jones killing took place at the Port Arthur Town Homes, a modern and attractive low-income housing complex that seems to have been a focal point for post-Rita problems. What occurred the night of October 13 in the nearly empty complex is currently the focus of a grand jury investigation. The eyewitness was barbecuing outside his girlfriend’s apartment, several doors down from Jones’ apartment. At approximately 9:30 p.m., Jones came into the parking lot outside his apartment. Immediately, the eyewit ness noticed that something was not right. “The dude, if he ain’t crazy, he planted to the teeth. He took all his clothes off; he out of his mind.” He approached Jones to see if he was going to make trouble. Jones ignored him. “That let me know right there he didn’t want any confrontation with us,” he said. Members of Jones’ family are unsure why Tyrone was acting bizarrely that night. Both Tyrone’s brother and sister had seen him just a few hours before his run-in with the cops and report that he was acting normal and sober. \(They describe Tyrone as a “jokester” and “happy-go-lucky,” a man with a wife and kids who was not a drug abuser and held down a steady job with a construction company. Jones’ wife, however, does recall one time when Tyrone had a mental A neighbor called the police, who arrived around 10 p.m. According to the eyewitness, the first patrol car waited for backup and then a white officer approached Jones and fired a Taser shot into his buttocks without trying to communicate with him verbally. DECEMBER 16, 2005 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 11