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[h=4]Police look for motive in killing of Houston area deputy[/h]The suspect in the case, Shannon J. Miles, was arrested Saturday and charged with capital murder. He will likely be arraigned Monday.
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Shannon J. Miles, a man with a previous criminal history, has been arrested and charged with capital murder for the death of Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Darren Goforth. VPC
Mourners gather at a gas station in Houston on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2015 to pay their respects at a makeshift memorial for Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Darren Goforth, who was shot and killed while filling his patrol car.(Photo: James Nielsen, AP)
Investigators continued to search for a motive Sunday behind the gunning down of a Houston area sheriff's deputy, apparently by a man who had multiple encounters with law enforcement — but none with the officer he is charged with shooting.
The suspect in the case, Shannon J. Miles, was arrested Saturday and charged with capital murder. He will likely be arraigned Monday.
Miles is accused of fatally shooting Deputy Darren Goforth, a 10-year veteran with the Harris County Sheriff's Office, in the back late Friday. Goforth, 47, was filling his car at a Chevron gas station in the Texas county<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at the time of the attack. A makeshift memorial with balloons and flowers has popped up at the site.
Miles, 30, had a history of previous arrests, beginning with a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>2005 conviction<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of criminal mischief, giving false information to police and resisting arrest, the Associated Press reported. In 2006, he was convicted of disorderly conduct with a firearm and sentenced to a maximum of 15 days in jail. He was convicted of evading arrest in 2007, and his most recent conviction came in 2009 for again resisting arrest. The AP cited records showing that Miles was sentenced to several short stints in jail, anywhere from 10 to 6 days.
Harris County Sheriff Deputy Darren Goforth.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: HCSO)
However, Sheriff Ron Hickman said there was no indication that Miles had any previous encounters with Goforth. Speaking at a Saturday news conference, Hickman called<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the shooting "unprovoked" and said police had found no evidence of any rationale for the attack. "The working motive for this at this point is absolute madness," he said. "This is just a cold blooded execution, so how do you protect against that?"
Goforth was married with two children. His wife, Kathleen, described him as a man "you wanted for a friend, colleague, and a neighbor." In a statement<span style="color: Red;">*</span>released to local media<span style="color: Red;">*</span>she said:<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"My husband was an incredibly intricate blend of toughness and gentility. He was loyal ... fiercely so. And he was ethical; the right thing to do is what guided his internal compass. ... He was good."
Hickman linked the shooting to a national backlash over several recent<span style="color: Red;">*</span>killings of unarmed black people<span style="color: Red;">*</span>by police officers.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Goforth was white and Miles is black.
At his news conference, Hickman said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the shooting was related to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"very dangerous national rhetoric" that has surfaced since the shooting of an unarmed black man by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., more than a year ago. The emergence of the "Black Lives Matter" campaign in the wake of the Ferguson case led to nationwide protests and calls for reforms in police tactics and training.
Demonstrations occurred in the Houston area after Sandra Bland, a black, 28-year-old Chicago woman, was taken into custody after a traffic stop in nearby Waller County and subsequently found hanged in her jail cell last month. The death was ruled a suicide, but Bland's family disputes the finding.
Hickman suggested the public dialogue over policing and race relations has grown too heated and may have had a role in Goforth's shooting. "When rhetoric ramps up to the point where cold-blooded assassination has happened, this rhetoric has gotten out of control," he said. "We heard 'black lives matter.' All lives matter. Well, cops' lives matter too, so why don't we drop the qualifier and say 'lives matter' and take that to the bank."
There was a strong show of support for Goforth in the community where the shooting took place. Hundreds of people streamed by the gas station in support around a makeshift memorial of balloons, flowers and signs that were set up at the site of the shooting. Local news outlets reported that thousands of dollars in donations had been raised to help<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the deputy's family.
USA TODAY
Suspect named in killing of Houston deputy
Contributing: Jessica Estepa
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