Potter County grand jury finds officers’ actions justified in July officer-involved shooting

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - A Potter County grand jury has found the officers were justified in their actions in an officer-involved shooting in July.

47th District Attorney Jason Herring held a news conference Wednesday afternoon with an update on the investigation.

Herring said the grand jury reviewed the investigation of the shooting. The grand jury found the officers’ actions were justified in their response and will not face charges for the death of a man and woman during a traffic stop on July 9.

The jury found the officers acted in self defense.

“There was nothing that could have been done any different on the part of the officers,” said Herring. “The officers responded absolutely appropriately in accordance with their training.”

The shooting happened on July 9, when Amarillo police say an officer was conducting a traffic stop in the area of Northeast 9th Avenue and North Grand Street.

Police say the license plate on the car did not match the car it was on. Since there were three people in the car, more officers were called in.

During the investigation, the driver was taken out of the car.

While police were speaking with the back seat passenger, identified as 32-year-old Andrew Scott Norton, he got out of the car and pointed a pistol at officers.

The officers shot him and he died at the scene.

Herring says police fired 23 rounds and that there was no excessive use of force by officers.

“There’s absolutely zero evidence of that here, officers are trained and they respond to a presented threat and they will continue to respond to that threat until there is no longer a threat and that’s what always ends up being, you know here they got it just right, unfortunately there were some unintended consequences,” said Herring.

The front seat passenger, identified as 38-year-old Isidra Clara Castillo, was also hit by gunfire. She was taken to a local hospital where she later died.

We have requested body cam footage of the shooting, but have not yet received a response.

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