The right call

Murder charges against officer in botched raid mark stark change of accountability in county.

The shadow hanging over the Houston Police Department since Jan. 28, when five officers busted into the home of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas and killed them in a shootout, lifted ever so slightly Friday.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced her office had charged former police officer Gerald Goines with two counts of felony murder for his role in the botched raid.

The fates of Goines and his former partner Steven Bryant — charged with evidence tampering, a state jail felony

— now rest with a grand jury tasked with deciding whether to indict. Both officers retired earlier this year as the investigation quickened.

Goines’ murder charge wasn’t surprising. Police Chief Art Acevedo had hinted months ago that the case was headed in that direction. But it does represent a stark break from the days in Harris County when officers were routinely shielded from accountability.

Last year was the first time in 15 years that Harris County prosecutors secured an indictment against a peace officer for an on-duty fatal shooting, although that case ended in acquittal this month.

A conviction against Goines is also far from certain. Nevertheless, in charging Goines with murder, Ogg sent another powerful message that transgressions by officers will carry consequences. She told the editorial board Friday that the grand jury will also consider stronger charges, such as capital murder, if jurors determine the evidence supports them.

The harm the Harding Street raid did to this community goes beyond even the tragic death toll and severe officer injury. Tuttle and Nicholas, who were not the heroin dealers police initially claimed, were shot to death in their own home. Police say Tuttle fired at the five officers who crashed in on a no-knock warrant, but details of what happened remain shielded from the public.

Four officers, including Goines, were shot, and another was injured. One officer remains paralyzed from the waist down.

The other casualty is the public’s trust in the integrity of officers sworn to keep the city safe. That won’t be easily healed.

Friday’s announcement helps. Knowing officers are not above the law is a necessary condition for community trust. And trust is a necessary condition for safety — the officers’ safety and that of the communities they strive every day to protect.

Still, there’s a reason murder charges against police are rare. Police have dangerous jobs in which decisions hinge on intuition, limited information and split-second decisions. Sometimes tragedies really are mistakes. For that reason, and less-noble political pressures, prosecutors often fear bringing charges themselves and instead let grand juries decide. Grand juries often hesitate on charges as well.

Sometimes a murder charge is precisely what justice requires, even if it is later set aside by a grand jury. Former officer Roy Oliver of the Balch Springs department was charged with murder and later indicted in 2018 for firing his rifle into a fleeing car full of teenagers who refused his order to stop, killing 15-year-old Jordan Edward. He was convicted last year and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Days later, Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger shot and killed 26-year-old Botham Jean in his own apartment, saying she entered mistakenly, believing it was her own, and thought he was an intruder. She became the first DPD officer indicted on murder a charge since 1973 and awaits trial next month.

What Goines is accused of doing seems even worse than those cases. The other officers seem to have responded to unexpected circumstances. The HPD raid was planned. Only after it ended in disaster did investigators apparently realize how Goines’ alleged lies set things in motion.

“I am just angry beyond belief,” Acevedo told the editorial board Saturday. “Even our biggest critics know that by far most of our officers are honest and dedicated public servants. But when something like this happens, it’s just devastating.”

Acevedo rightly notes that healing efforts began when his own investigators began looking for answers and unearthed the evidence that supports Friday’s charges.

But much more is required. The public still knows too little about what happened at Harding Street and what happened within HPD in the years before that allowed Goines to operate as he did. While police have largely cooperated with Ogg’s probe, prosecutors did threaten HPD with a subpoena in June to get names of confidential informants. Acevedo has pledged a full, public accounting once criminal cases have concluded. It’s a promise he must keep.

Nothing will restore Tuttle and Nicholas to life, nor will the wounded officers ever be the same. But understanding what happened in this deadly raid — and how it was allowed to happen — can help Houston heal. Friday’s charges are a hopeful sign that, this time, police accountability may be possible.