Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) is defending the man who worked security for her but was killed during a law enforcement standoff in Dallas on Wednesday and accused of pretending to be a policeman.
Thirty-nine-year-old Diamon Mazairre-Robinson had barricaded himself inside a parking garage at Children’s Medical Center Dallas after police tracked him down as they were investigating an active warrant, Fox News reported Monday.
Police video showed the moments SWAT officers told Robinson to get out of the car and obey their commands so that he would not get hurt. The officers deployed tear gas to force him out of the vehicle and as he got out of the car and stood up, an officer told him multiple times not to reach.
However, the suspect appeared to reach toward his waist and point a gun at the officers who opened fire:
In addition to going by the name Mike King and running a business called Off Duty Police Services, Robinson was accused of impersonating a policeman, wearing fake uniforms that made him appear to be a federal agent, and running the fraudulent business to hire legitimate police officers for off-duty gigs.
The gun he was holding during the standoff was also reportedly stolen.
In a statement on Monday, Crockett defended him by saying, “As a former public defender, I’ve always believed people are more than the worst thing they’ve ever done. I believe in redemption. The man we knew showed up with respect, care, and commitment to protecting others.”
She said her team followed all protocols by the House to hire additional security, adding they were “unable to locate any violent offenses.”
Crockett added the suspect had been around her team for many years and “What we’re now learning about his past doesn’t fit the person we came to know as Mike King… Our hearts grieve the loss of someone we knew and the lost good that could have come from his redemption.”
A Fox 4 report showed mugshots of the suspect from 2010 up until 2017:
Crockett in September suggested poverty can drive people to commit certain crimes and prosecutions are not always justified when offenses involve their basic survival needs, per Breitbart News.
She later claimed that just because someone commits a crime it “doesn’t make them a criminal.”
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