Ron Sneed

Ronald 'Ron' Sneed, 32, was shot four times and killed by a Freeport, Texas police officer on January 7, 2015 after a call about a disturbance at an apartment complex.

What happened

Police went to the Garden Villas apartments on Yaupon Street in Freeport on January 7, 2015, after a call concerning a disturbance and possible burglary. Officer gunfire killed Ronald Sneed, also identified as Ron or Ronald 'Maynard' Sneed. ABC13 interviewed family members who said the officer shot him four times. His mother explicitly said he was unarmed when the shots were fired. Later accounts from authorities alleged he was on top of his girlfriend and pointed a handgun at her. Those positions conflict, and neither should be presented as an uncontested eyewitness reconstruction. The killing provoked an emotional response among relatives and residents. Sneed's death is not reduced to a one-line police claim: the disagreement about whether he had a weapon and posed an immediate threat belongs at the center of the case history.

Investigation & findings

Contemporaneous reporting documents the police investigation and the family's conflicting account. The Guardian's compiled case record lists the shooting as ruled justified, but the underlying written decision was not independently obtained in this pass.

What happened

Investigation & findings

Sources & records