Galveston Cop Who Fired 8 Shots At Unarmed Man Won’t Face Charges

A Galveston, Texas, police officer who shot and killed Randy Martin during a traffic stop in May will not face criminal charges, even as newly released footage fuels doubts about the officer’s account.

Houston Public Media reports that a grand jury decided not to take action against the officer who killed Martin, 47. The Texas Rangers investigated the shooting, and the district attorney’s office presented the case, which included video of the incident.

Officer Joshua Nino De Guzman pulled Martin over on May 18. He said he saw Martin’s car leave an alley police had under narcotics surveillance and then roll through several stop signs, according to the Galveston County Daily News.

But body camera video shows the officer ordering Martin out of the car without giving a reason, Atlanta Black Star reports. Martin asked why he had been stopped and insisted he had not run any stop signs. Authorities have released no video showing Martin doing so. 

In the Rangers’ report, De Guzman said Martin resisted being handcuffed, grabbed his holstered weapon and raised an object the officer thought was a gun. De Guzman said he feared he would be killed and fired eight rounds. No firearm belonging to Martin was recovered. An autopsy found seven entrance wounds, five of them in Martin’s upper right back; the medical examiner ruled his death a homicide.

Martin didn’t die alone. Ashley Parks, his girlfriend, was in the car. The scene recalls the 2016 killing of Philando Castile, who was shot by a Minnesota officer during a traffic stop as his girlfriend, Diamond “Lavish” Reynolds, sat beside him and livestreamed the aftermath with her 4-year-old daughter. The officer in that case was acquitted of manslaughter.

Parks’ account, as described in the Rangers’ report, does not clear up what happened. She told an investigator that Martin fought with the officer and tried to get back into the car to put down drugs he had, and that she heard De Guzman order him to stop before the shots rang out.

Martin’s mother, Paula Martin Lynch, rejects the idea that her son was justifiably killed. “My son was murdered,” she said, according to Atlanta Black Star. The family is weighing a civil lawsuit, the outlet reports.

De Guzman remains employed by the Galveston Police Department but has been assigned to its Support Services Bureau, or non-patrol work. 

Martin’s killing comes as families of people killed by police push to rein in traffic stops for minor infractions. As reported by NewsOne, Philando Castile’s mother, Valerie Castile, backed a Minnesota prosecutor’s decision to stop prosecuting non-public safety stops, such as for expired tags or broken taillights, calling it a small but welcome step. 

Martin’s stop began after he drove out of an area police had under drug surveillance, the kind of stop critics call pretextual. University of Texas at Austin researchers, writing for NewsOne, found that such stops rarely lead to serious criminal charges and fall hardest on Black drivers.

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