Ravinder Singh, an ex-Arlington, Texas, police officer, had been accused of negligent homicide after a woman died in 2019. On Monday, he was found not guilty, by a jury, in Tarrant County.
Close to 5 p.m. on Friday, the jury had been given the case and deliberated for about three hours and then went home for the weekend.
On Monday morning, the jury reconvened about 8:30 a.m. Around 3:50 p.m., the verdict was read.
In 2019, Singh had only been on the job for one month. He had responded to a welfare call of a woman, known later as Margarita “Maggie” Brooks, who had been asleep behind a shopping facility. When he located her, the woman’s dog went after him. The officer shot his gun, and the bullet ricocheted, striking Brooks in the chest.
Singh testified that he was only attempting to assist when he was threatened by the dog. He added that the whole incident was an accident.
However, an expert witness testified that the officer was aware that somebody was in the location of where he aimed his weapon. Despite that, he shot his gun anyway, not following his training and firearm guidelines.
Singh expressed his remorse in court.
“I just want to get this all behind me. It was always my dream to serve this country and serve my citizens of Arlington. And this was never my intention of what happened to Maggie. I was there to help her, and this was a completely tragic accident.”
In September 2020, Singh had been indicted for criminally negligent homicide. This is punishable for up to 180 days to two years in prison.
“…until you understood the facts and realized this was a ricocheted-that didn’t come out until right before the indictment. So a lot of decisions were made without knowing that this was strictly a double ricocheted,” stated Singh’s lawyer.
