Inconsistencies and late reporting in 2023 APD officer-involved shooting

Lina Portman4 weeks ago

0 4 minutes read

Questions surround a police shooting involving an Abilene man who is expected to stand trial.

Robert Guevara Jr., 38, is accused of pointing a gun at police officers, including one who then shot him on Jan. 22, 2023. He is behind bars awaiting his court date to be reset Taylor County Courthouse. Guevara was shot in the torso.

The questions stem from discrepancies in the Abilene Police Department's accounts of the shooting. Additionally, APD filed a legally required report more than a year late with the Texas Attorney General's Office.

Accounts of the incident that led to charges against Guevara differ between an APD press release from the day it occurred and court documents filed by an APD officer a day later.

Additionally, law enforcement is legally required to file a report with the Attorney General's Office on any officer-involved shooting resulting in death or injury within 30 days of the incident.

Repeated online searches, begun last week, of a public database maintained by the attorney general's office for such reports did not turn up a report on the Guevara incident. It appeared in the database on Monday, the day it was received from APD and uploaded by the prosecutor's office.

Notably, the missing report appeared in the AG's database after The Reporter-News requested information about it.

Rick Tomlin, public information coordinator for Abilene police, did not respond to emailed requests for information Thursday.

Regardless, Guevara faces four charges in connection with the incident: one count of first-degree felony aggravated assault on a public servant, one count of criminal possession of methamphetamine, one count of child endangerment and a fourth count of theft of a firearm.

He was being held Tuesday in the Taylor County Jail on a total bond of $4 million, according to online jail records.

Everyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The previously missing report

Even though the press release about the incident and the criminal complaint offer two different scenarios, one wonders why the APD report on the police shooting was filed about a year and a half late with the office of the prosecutor.

Law enforcement must file a report if a peace officer “discharges a firearm causing injury or death to another,” according to Texas law.

The Guevara incident, however, did not appear in the AG's database until Monday, while two other recent Abilene police shootings that left two civilians dead in 2024 appeared in the 30 days following these incidents.

“I got a handgun.”

The report filed with the Attorney General is simple.

It alleged that the person injured in the officer-involved shooting had “carried, displayed or used a deadly weapon.”

Why then does the press release differ from the court documents?

According to the police press release dated January 22, 2023, concerned neighbors called police dispatch around 6:30 p.m. after noticing a broken window at a home in the 3500 block of North Ninth Street.

When officers arrived on scene, they observed an empty vehicle in the driveway.

They observed “what appeared to be illegal narcotics in the vehicle,” the release alleges. As officers began to form a plan and move away from the vehicle, they saw a man approach the driver's side of the car.

One of the officers “made verbal contact with the individual, identifying himself as a police officer,” according to the statement. The officer then ordered the man to show his hands.

Instead, according to allegations in the release, the man “reached behind his waist and retrieved a handgun.” The officer then shot the man, hitting him at least once in the torso.

“Officers determined that a child was in the vehicle during this incident,” according to the release.

The child, unharmed, was “quickly removed from the area and reunited with his family”.

Officers on scene began providing medical treatment to the man, who was transported to the hospital for treatment of his gunshot wound.

The man was later identified in court records as Guevara, who was 36 at the time of his February 2023 arrest.

What differences?

The original APD press release contained a series of events that led to the shooting of Guevara by Abilene Police Officer Kyle Lassetter. Court documents differ here, however.

The complaint filed a day later, on January 23, 2023, states that Guevara not only retrieved a handgun, but also “pointed it in the officer's direction.”

Additionally, the complaint states that officers saw that Guevara was “carrying a small child” and placed him in the back seat before the shots were fired.

Why did the storyline change a day later? When did the police observe the small child and did Guevara actually point a handgun at the police as alleged?

On June 4, the Reporter-News filed an open records request with the city of Abilene to obtain body-worn camera and police vehicle footage of the incident. The city has 10 days to respond to the request and had not responded as of Tuesday morning.

According to inmate correspondence filed on November 15, 2023, Guevara said: “I know I am innocent…I am not a criminal. »

What did local law enforcement say?

The Reporter-News contacted APD's Tomlin to ask why there were discrepancies between the accounts in the department's press release and the complaint.

He responded with the following statement: “To comment on any legal proceedings without the proper documents to rely on would be disingenuous. The Ministry will allow the legal system/process to continue before making any comments. »

The Reporter-News then asked why a report on the shooting apparently wasn't filed with the attorney general's office last week. APD did not respond. Instead, they filed the report about a year and a half late.

Lina Portman

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