A Tarrant County grand jury has indicted Logan Barr, a Forest Hill police officer, on a murder charge after allegedly shooting a murder suspect in June 2021.
Forest Hill police officer Logan Barr is accused of fatally shooting 32-year-old Michael Lee Ross Jr., who investigators said posed no threat to the officer or others around him in a confrontation near a gas station last year.
According to NBC 5 News, the shooting incident occurred on June 9, 2021, at approximately 5:30 a.m., when Forest Hill police officer Logan Barr and other officers responded to a report of a woman fatally stabbed in the Quik Trip parking lot 6549 Wichita Street.
Ross is suspected of having stabbed the woman. Officers found him just north of the store in a creek at the bottom of an embankment.
In Logan Barr’s arrest warrant, Texas Ranger Eisenhower Upshaw, who viewed bodycam footage of the incident, recounted what happened on the day of the shooting incident.
According to Upshaw’s account, Ross was standing in the creek with the knife in hand. He refused the officers’ command to drop the gun.
One of the officers, a sergeant, fired multiple shots from a less-than-lethal shotgun, but Ross continued holding the knife.
The sergeant then asked Barr to get his less-than-lethal shotgun, but he got his regular shotgun instead and said “Shotgun deployed” on the radio.
The sergeant then told Logan Barr to shoot Ross, who was still unsteady on his feet with his pants down around his thighs.
Ross turned and was walking away from the officers. However, he turned and faced the officers about 16 seconds later but was 15 to 20 feet down the muddy embankment.
Logan Barr then fired two shots in quick succession, causing Ross to collapse on the ground.
Upshaw said he did not observe Ross making any verbal threats or raising the knife in a threatening manner toward the officers.
“Ross did not pose a reasonable and immediate threat,” Upshaw wrote in the warrant.
Forest Hill police said Logan Barr was “indefinitely suspended and dishonorably discharged” following an internal affairs investigation.
Logan Barr’s attorneys released a statement saying their client was indicted for murder because he was following his supervisor’s orders to shoot a man holding a knife.
His attorney said they are looking forward to defending him against the charges in court.
Logan Barr faces up to 99 years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted of the crime after the county grand jury indictment.