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HOUSTON (AP) — Prosecutors in Texas are charging a 30-year-old man with capital murder in the killing of a sheriff's deputy who was gunned down from behind while filling up his patrol car at a suburban Houston gas station.
Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman identified the man as Shannon J. Miles, who had a previous record including charges of resisting arrest and trespassing.
Hickman says the motive for the killing had not been determined but investigators would look at whether Miles, who is black, was motivated by anger over recent killings elsewhere of black men by police that have spawned the "Black Lives Matter" protest movement.
Deputy Darren Goforth, who was 47, was pumping gas Friday night when the gunman approached him from behind and fired multiple shots, continuing to fire after the deputy had fallen to the ground. Goforth, who was white, was a 10-year veteran of the force.
Earlier on Saturday, Hickman had called the killing a "cold-blooded assassination."
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