BAYTOWN, Texas – A Houston-area police officer who fatally shot a woman with mental illness is back on the job but not the streets.
Baytown police say Officer Juan Delacruz returned to work Monday. He'll be on administrative duty during the investigation into his shooting of 44-year-old Pamela Turner. Delacruz was put on paid leave for three days following the May 13 killing.
Police have said Delacruz shot the African American woman after she hit him with his Taser during an attempted arrest. Turner's family has presented the Hispanic officer as the aggressor, saying he was Turner's neighbor and knew she had paranoid schizophrenia.
A lawyer for Turner's family says video of the incident and a private autopsy show Delacruz shot Turner in the stomach, chest and face while a "safe distance" away.