Fort Worth police fatally shot two men — identified by the medical examiner as Ricky Shane Lindsey, 56, and Andrew Isaiah Ponce, 21 — in separate incidents within hours of each other over the weekend. The shootings, along with a nonfatal officer-involved shooting days earlier, have drawn scrutiny and a controversial response from a city council member.
Here are key takeaways:
Ricky Shane Lindsey, 56, was fatally shot Saturday night after Fort Worth officers tried to stop him near Interstate 35W and Risinger Road around 8 p.m., leading to a short chase that ended at a motel parking lot on Palette Drive. Police said Lindsey pulled a handgun on officers, who then opened fire.Lindsey was wanted on a felony warrant for cutting off his ankle monitor while on bond on an indictment charging him with failing to update his sex offender registration. He had been convicted in McLennan County in 2004 on three counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child, according to the Fort Worth police sex offender registry.Andrew Isaiah Ponce, 21, was fatally shot around 6 a.m. Sunday after officers responded to a domestic disturbance in the 9200 block of Renee Circle, where police say he had kicked in an apartment door and fought with a woman inside — identified in a 911 call log as his ex-girlfriend — before grabbing a knife during the altercation.When officers arrived, Ponce was in the parking lot holding the knife to his own throat and refused multiple commands to drop it, continuing to walk toward officers before at least one opened fire, Chief Eddie Garcia said.No officers or other civilians were injured in either shooting, and the department’s Major Case Unit is investigating both incidents, with body-camera video typically released within a few days at a press conference.Fort Worth City Council member Charles Lauersdorf drew criticism for a Facebook post shortly after midnight July 26 saying the officer who shot Lindsey was doing “the Lord’s work” and that the Directed Response Unit took “a sex offender off the street – Permanently,” a post he later edited but stood by.Lauersdorf told the Star-Telegram he has “no love lost or sympathy for the loss of a child sex offender” and said his post celebrated officers surviving the encounter, though he acknowledged it is not police officers’ job to serve as “judge, jury and executioner.”
The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.
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