HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – New court documents revealed the probable motive in the deadly shooting of Harris County sheriff's deputy Darren Goforth on Monday.
Prosecutors said Shannon Miles is accused of shooting Goforth in retaliation for being a law enforcement officer, and no other reason.
Miles was indicted Monday by a Harris County grand jury on a capital murder charge.
The single-page indictment document, obtained by Channel 2, points to a motive of "retaliation".
"...committing and attempting to commit retaliation against Harris County Sheriff's Department Deputy D. Goforth," the document reads.
There is no evidence that Miles ever had any prior contact with Goforth before the murder, so the "retaliation" could be against police officers in general.
"The way I understand it is that this defendant engaged in this conduct not because any prior dealings, run-ins, or bad blood but because the complainant in this case, Deputy Goforth, wore a uniform," Channel 2 legal analyst Brian Wice said.
Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson outlined the probable cause against Miles at a press conference.
Anderson said a witness saw a man sitting in a red Ford Ranger pickup truck last Friday night at a gas station on West Road in northwest Harris County.
The witness said Goforth had just pumped gas into his patrol car, then went inside the store. While returning to his vehicle, Anderson said surveillance video shows a man wearing a white T-shirt and red shorts get out of the pickup and run up behind Goforth as the deputy was walking back to his vehicle.
Anderson said surveillance shows the man putting a gun to the back of Goforth's head and firing. She said the deputy then falls to the ground and the man shoots him multiple times while he's down.
"And as you see the video, you see the male get out of the car, he's wearing a white T-shirt, red shorts, tennis shoes, and he runs up behind Deputy Goforth and puts the gun to the back of his head and shoots. Deputy Goforth hits the ground and then he continues to unload his gun, shooting repeatedly into the back of Deputy Goforth," Anderson said.
The man then gets back into the pickup and drives off.
According to Anderson, the video and witnesses confirmed to investigators that the pickup had an after-market trailer hitch and a white cooler in the bed of the truck.
Anderson said investigators ran vehicle registration for red Ford Ranger pickup trucks in the same ZIP code as the gas station and got a match at an address on Pine Falls.
Authorities spotted the truck with a similar trailer hitch in the driveway at the residence.
A man answered the door and told authorities that the truck belonged to his brother, who had just left with his mother.
The mother and Miles returned home, and Anderson said Miles admitted that the truck was his.
When asked if he owned any guns, Anderson said that Miles told authorities he owned a pistol that was stored in a blue bag in his garage.
Deputies got a search warrant and found the gun, which was empty, and the white cooler.
Anderson said ballistics testing showed the gun matched the shell casings found at the gas station.
"The gun holds 14 in its magazine, and one in the chamber. Fifteen shell casings, you can do the math. He unloaded the entire pistol into Deputy Goforth," Anderson said. "In addition there is a witness who viewed a video lineup with the defendant in it and he positively identified Shannon Miles as the shooter."
Authorities have called Goforth's shooting an unprovoked, execution-style ambush.Miles is being held without bond.
"The shooter in this case didn't see black, he didn't see white. He saw blue," KPRC 2 legal analyst Brian Wice said. "That's what this case is about. In another year, the DA's office is going to ask 12 Harris County citizens to probably ask this defendant to pay with his life for this execution."
