The Dallas Cop Who Shot an Unarmed Man in East Oak Cliff Will Not Face Criminal Charges

By Eric Nicholson Tue., Oct. 15 2013 at 12:30 PM

Collette Flanagan has spent the past seven months rallying to have the cop who killed her son Clinton Allen put in jail. Nothing has worked, not her complaints against Dallas Police Chief David Brown, not her protest outside District Attorney Craig Watkins' Grambling-Prairie View fundraiser, not Allen's twin boys holding "Honk to Indict Killer Cops" signs. It's clear now that nothing's going to.

The Dallas Morning News' Tanya Eiserer reports in this morning's paper that a Dallas County grand jury declined to indict officer Clark Staller for shooting the 25-year-old at an East Oak Cliff apartment complex in March.

Speaking to Eiserer, Watkins struck an almost apologetic tone.

"In this case, there are no winners," he said. "According to the grand jury's assessment, there was not enough evidence to indict this officer."

Allen's death came on the heels of several high-profile shooting by DPD officers, but his story never seemed to gain as much traction as the deaths of James Harper, who was also unarmed, or John Husband, who was shot in the back.

There's no telling why. Maybe the narrative in Allen's case was too messy. Police said Allen was choking Staller from behind at the time of the shooting, and that he had PCP in his system and a history of drug convictions. Flanagan and her supporters countered by pointing out that Staller was suspended for 20 days last year for running over a burglary suspect then lying about it to his superiors.

Flanagan and her supporters are not giving up. In a blog post announcing the grand jury's decision, they promise to "pursue this killer ... into phase II of our campaign."

What shape that will take is unclear, but it will involve fighting against Watkins' re-election.

We Recommend

chunt6

A police state? Good grief! what do you suppose the officer should have done? Stand there and let this drugged out idiot choke the life out of him? Then his family could say Allen just made a mistake cause he was scared? All of ya'll sound ridiculous.

Siege_A

Good to know I'm moving into a fascist police state...

gabe48

@Siege_A Look, the Dallas Police Department has corruption issues, and has committed terrible atrocities. Many of these are inexcusable. That said, this is the exception, not the norm. Want evidence of this? Compare arrest records from 2012-2013 next to these scandals and accusations of corrupt peace officers.

Even better, go as fast as you want on the freeways, run red lights downtown and uptown, you can even walk around wasted, right in front of police officers. You generally have to try VERY hard to get arrested in Dallas proper. Every large city has corruption issues and shitty police officers.

Good to know that we are getting another douchebag transplant who makes assumptions about a place they do not yet live, likely based on preconceived notions, the city's portrayal in tv/movies, and a couple of articles. You do not even know what fascist means.

Stay in California, Chicago, New York, or whatever place you, and your ilk, are coming from/getting priced-out of and avoid our super scary fascist police state.

parmstronyahoo.com

@Siege_A moving? into? Honey this IS the Fourth Reich

parmstronyahoo.com

@Siege_A moving??? into???? honey this is the Fourth Reich

Siege_A

Actually I do my research. I didn't have any assumptions until I. REALLY looked into Dallas. I'm quite familiar with fascism, and I see a lot of it in your police force.

Btw, Virginia isn't anything close to NYC or California... If anything you live in a much more similar place to NY than I am

parmstronyahoo.com

@gabe48 @Siege_A The police are worse in NY. This is a nationwide issue. The only police force that is fair and even handed are small town affairs, for example all of my dealings with Kaufman Police have been fair and even handed. Garland for contrast is the seventh layer of Hell.