{"id":404090,"date":"2026-08-12T01:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T01:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/404090\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T01:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T01:50:10","slug":"former-deputy-arrested-charged-in-fatal-shooting-of-texas-state-freshman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/404090\/","title":{"rendered":"Former deputy arrested, charged in fatal shooting of Texas State freshman"},"content":{"rendered":"

BRAZORIA COUNTY, Texas \u2014 The former Brazoria County sheriff’s deputy<\/a> who fatally shot<\/a> 18-year-old Texas State University freshman John Mendoza Jr. <\/a>has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault by a public servant, according to online jail records.<\/p>\n

Kevin Daniel Tippit was booked on the charge on Tuesday, which stems from a 239th District Court warrant tied to the June 1 shooting. His bond was set at $250,000, jail records show. He was arrested by the Texas Rangers.<\/p>\n

Court documents show a grand jury indicted Tippit on Aug. 6.<\/p>\n

The first-degree assault charge could carry a maximum of a life sentence if the former deputy is convicted, according the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office.<\/p>\n

Tippit fatally shot Mendoza on June 1 after pursuing his car for about a mile to Mendoza’s father’s home in Lake Jackson during an attempted traffic stop, according to the Mendoza family’s attorney, Charles Adams. Adams has said Mendoza was unarmed and was in the car with friends at the time.<\/p>\n

Brazoria County Sheriff Bo Stallman fired Tippit<\/a> days after the shooting, citing policy violations, but said at the time that the decision was “entirely independent of the ongoing criminal investigation” and should not be seen as a conclusion about criminal liability.<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS COVERAGE | Brazoria County Sheriff fires deputy who fatally shot Texas State freshman<\/a><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Stallman said Tippit’s indictment carries “heavy emotion.”<\/p>\n

“John Jr. was a young man who was well-loved and had his whole life in front of him,” Stallman said. “He should still be here with his family.”<\/p>\n

He added that his experience with Tippit has been that “he is a good man, who worked very hard to do a good job for [his] team and [his] community.”<\/p>\n

“There is no doubt this incident had devastating consequences,” Stallman said. “As Sheriff, there is nothing more important to me than our citizens trusting law enforcement professionals are doing their very best to serve them every day. I want our citizens to know we do our best to be, and to employ, individuals who care deeply for our community.”<\/p>\n

Stallman said his office remains committed to accountability and supporting the legal consequences.<\/p>\n

The Texas Rangers and the Brazoria County District Attorney’s Office led the investigation into the shooting. <\/p>\n

The Mendoza family attorney, Charles Adams, released a video message in response to the indictment.<\/p>\n

“We applaud this decision,” Adams said, thanking the county’s district attorney.<\/p>\n

Mendoza’s father, John Mendoza Sr., had publicly called<\/a> for criminal charges in the weeks following his son’s death, saying the family wanted accountability.<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS COVERAGE | ‘He didn’t deserve this’: Father of TXST student killed by deputy wants charges filed<\/a><\/p>\n

Mendoza Jr. was expected to begin his sophomore year at Texas State University this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRAZORIA COUNTY, Texas \u2014 The former Brazoria County sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot 18-year-old Texas State University freshman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-404090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404090","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=404090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}