Police Took 11 Days To Arrest Texas Man Who Admitted To Shooting Unarmed Muslim Man In His Car
What took so long?
Caldwell County Sheriff's Office / GoFundMe Terry Turner shot and killed Moroccan man, Adil Dghoughi, in Martindale, Texas, while he was unarmed and inside of his car.
Turner claimed that he was acting in self-defense after chasing down the car that was pulled into his driveway during the middle of the night.
It took police 11 days to arrest Terry Turner for the murder of Adil Dghoughi.
At around 3:42 a.m. the Caldwell County Sheriff's Office responded to a report of a shooting. The report said the homeowner “confronted a suspicious vehicle.”
Turner said that when he had awoken in the middle of the night to use a bathroom, he noticed the car outside of his window and went to grab his handgun.
31-year-old Dghoughi's headlights were initially turned off, but upon seeing Turner leave his house with his handgun he turned them on and "began to rapidly accelerate in reverse."
That’s when Turner started to run after the car — smacking the window and then ultimately shooting through the window to strike Dghoughi.
According to KXAN, Turner made a call to 911 where he reportedly told the dispatcher, "I just killed a guy," explaining that he "tried to pull a gun at me, I shot.”
The Caldwell County Sheriff’s Department issued a statement that the shooter was cooperating but he had not been placed under arrest.
“The shooter in this case is cooperative and the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office does not believe there to be a threat to the public,” they posted to Facebook.
This prompted a lot of backlash. People were astounded that they hadn’t arrested the man who shot an innocent and unarmed Muslim man.
It took 11 days for them to obtain an arrest warrant, and bring him into custody after he turned himself into the police.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations spoke out about the incident, saying “We welcome the arrest, but our work is not done.”
They emphasized that they wanted to create a harder push for "justice for the family of Adil Dghoughi and for all the families in Texas and nationwide impacted by gun violence."
Adil Dghoughi's family are heartbroken by their loss.
“I thought I was going to wake up again, and it was only going to be a dream,” said Othmane Dghoughi. “Why did it take them 10-days to make the arrest.”
According to Adil’s brother, they had no connection to Turner and thought that he might have gotten lost on his way home from his girlfriend’s house in Maxwell.
65-year-old Turner was only in custody for two hours before being released on bond, adding to the frustration for the police’s negligence in this case.
However, the attorney representing Dghoughi’s family doesn’t believe that Turner will be able to mount a defense based on the “Stand Your Ground” laws in Texas — which says people can commit violent acts in order to defend themselves.
“What was going on in his mind, I frankly don’t know,” said Mehdi Cherkaoui. “Self-defense requires an element of reasonable necessity.”
When the police searched Adil’s vehicle, there were no weapons found inside, and they’ve even redacted information in the incidents reports.
NPR received the documents from the sheriff’s department with the "narrative" portion of the form — which would retell the events — completely redacted.
“We just want him to have his day in court and have a fair and unbiased jury,” Cherkaoui added.
The family has started a GoFundMe in order to pay for the costs of Adil’s funeral, returning his body to Morocco, and hiring a private investigator and a lawyer to “ensure justice is served.”