Retrial begins for former Texas officer charged with assault

DALLAS – A retrial is underway for a former suburban Dallas police officer charged with aggravated assault for shooting an unarmed man twice in the back.

Former Mesquite officer Derick Wiley was fired after the November 2017 shooting that wounded Lyndo Jones. Authorities say the officer mistook Jones for a burglar while Jones was trying to unlock his own truck.

According to the Dallas Morning News , prosecutor Bryan Mitchell told a jury Monday that Wiley was reckless and “hellbent on violence” on the night of the shooting. But Wiley’s defence attorney, Rafael Sierra, argued that the officer did not know Jones was unarmed and that he had to make a split-second decision.

In Wiley’s first trial, jurors deadlocked and a mistrial was declared in September.