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<\/p>\nThe Brief<\/p>\n
Former Fort Worth officer William Martin pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon following a 2024 off-duty road rage shooting.<\/p>\n
The shooting occurred after a hit-and-run, leading Martin to chase the other driver and fire three shots, injuring the other driver.<\/p>\n
Martin is the same police officer who was accused of using excessive force during the controversial arrest of Jaqueline Craig and her daughter in 2016.<\/p>\n
FORT WORTH, Texas – A former Fort Worth police officer has pleaded guilty to charges related to a road rage shooting.<\/p>\n
Fort Worth Road Rage Shooting<\/p>\n
What’s new<\/p>\n
William Martin pleaded guilty earlier this month to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.<\/p>\n
He now faces a punishment of between two and 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.<\/p>\n
A Tarrant County judge is expected to issue that sentence in August.<\/p>\n
The backstory<\/p>\n
Martin is a former Fort Worth police officer who was fired in 2024 following a road rage shooting that happened while he was off duty.<\/p>\n
Police said Martin was in his Honda Accord and claimed the driver of a Ford F-150 hit his car near Interstate 35W and Morningside Drive. The other driver took off.<\/p>\n
Martin pursued the other driver, got out of his car, and pointed a gun at the other driver.<\/p>\n
The other driver told police he feared for his life, so he began to drive away. That\u2019s when Martin fired three shots, hitting and injuring the other driver.<\/p>\n
Police said Martin and the other driver initially gave conflicting stories about what happened.<\/p>\n
Martin was ultimately arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and fired for unjustified use of force.<\/p>\n
Jacqueline Craig Arrest<\/p>\n
Big picture view<\/p>\n
Martin was also at the center of a controversial arrest in 2016 that attracted national attention.<\/p>\n
He was accused of using excessive force while arresting Jacqueline Craig and her daughter, after Craig called the police to complain about her neighbor.<\/p>\n
Video showed Martin wrestling Craig and one of her daughters to the ground.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
He served a 10-day suspension and the city ended up settling a civil lawsuit with the Craig family for $150,000.<\/p>\n
What they’re saying<\/p>\n
“It was very clear from the beginning that he had gone overboard with this.”<\/p>\n
Bob Ray Sanders, a former journalist and advocate in the Fort Worth community, says the plea agreement shows accountability and is a step towards justice.<\/p>\n
“The fact that the police eventually charged him with a crime said something. That gave the community some relief, that the community is now acting,” Sanders said.<\/p>\n
The attorney representing Samuel Christopher, the driver shot in the 2024 incident, gave the following statement to FOX 4:<\/p>\n
“Sam and his wife Mykaela are grateful for the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Office\u2019s diligent prosecution of Martin and look forward to justice being served at the sentencing hearing.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Source<\/p>\n
The information in this story is from court documents and past news coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief Former Fort Worth officer William Martin pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1099,16004,70184,116,118,117,112523,112585,2455,25865,112522],"class_list":["post-312690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-aggravated-assault","tag-aggravated-assault-with-a-deadly-weapon","tag-bob-ray-sanders","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-jacqueline-craig","tag-jaqueline-craig","tag-police-officer","tag-road-rage-shooting","tag-william-martin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}