Aggravated assault trial reveals footage of shooting between Corinth man and officers

Charles Williams Jr., 51, is on trial for three counts of aggravated assault against a public servant, which is a first-degree felony punishable by five to 99 years, or life, in prison. Williams is accused of having shot at the officers as they investigated him for allegedly driving while intoxicated outside his Corinth home on Feb. 2, 2021. His attorneys said Williams’ actions are “a classic case of self-defense.”

The shooting

From witness testimony, 911 calls, police footage and surveillance camera footage, the jury saw evidence of the inciting incident and the shooting itself.

After dark on Feb. 2, 2021, two witnesses were driving their daughter home from volleyball practice when they came across a suspicious truck on northbound Interstate 35E.

They called 911 to report the truck had nearly struck his vehicle and a few others on the road. It was struggling to maintain its lane. The caller followed the vehicle at a distance, providing dispatch with more information, until it turned into a Corinth neighborhood, and eventually to Williams’ house in the 2600 block of Nash Drive.

From Ring security camera at the Williams residence, the jury could see footage of Williams arriving at his home. He drives past the driveway and positions his truck to back into the driveway. The footage shows the vehicle jerking and readjusting as if he angled it wrong and pressed the gas pedal too hard. After a couple of adjustments, he quickly backs in to the driveway

From body camera, dash camera and Ring camera footage, Corinth Officer Archippus Daily can be seen parking his marked patrol vehicle in the street near Williams. Daily joined the department as a patrol officer in January 2020 and has since been promoted to corporal.

Daily gets out of his vehicle and asks how Williams is. Williams, who had been unlocking his front door and standing on his front doorstep when Daily arrives, responds with, “I don’t know. You tell me.” Daily walks toward the sidewalk in front of Williams’ house. Williams gestures for him to stop and tells Daily to hold on: “This is my property.”

Daily asks if Williams lives there and he responds, “Hell yeah.” Daily asks further questions about where Williams he came from, and Williams responds by asking the officer the same question. The officer says he was patrolling nearby, and that he needs to talk to Williams about some calls dispatch received about him.

Daily asks for Williams' name, and Williams responds, “Nah.” He tells the officer he has a Ring camera recording, saying, “At the end of the day, this is not the n----- you want to f--- with.”

At this point, Williams begins removing his jacket and reaching into the pockets. He pulls out a gun, which Daily would testify was originally obscured by the jacket. For about 12 seconds, footage shows Williams’ gun is out as he takes it from the jacket pocket and places it near his hip.

Daily tells Williams he wants to figure out why he is so upset since he pulled up. Williams says the question is why Daily pulled up. Daily reiterates that he got calls about Williams. In footage, Daily can be seen radioing to ask how far away a backup officer, Ashley Flack, is.

Daily sees the gun and brandishes his own weapon. Daily is seen and heard telling Williams to "put the gun down.”

At this point, Flack has arrived on the scene. Daily informs her that Williams has a gun in his pocket.

Flack draws her duty weapon and walks toward the front of Williams’ vehicle. She commands him to put his gun on the ground but he does not comply.

As Flack moves toward the rear of Williams’ truck, Williams directs his attention to her, yelling for her to get off his property. She tells him no.

Flack commands Williams to get on the ground but he tells her several times he will not. Williams says again that they are "f---ing" with the wrong person. 

A woman, later identified as Williams’ wife, Iris, is seen in the footage standing with him on the porch at this point. She is heard telling him to calm down several times.

Flack retrieves a less-lethal shotgun from her marked patrol vehicle. It's loaded with bean bag rounds that fire with less force than a lethal gun, and its intent is to stun or to temporarily incapacitate or cause discomfort to a suspect. If used at the correct distance and aimed at less-vulnerable areas of the body, it will not cause serious bodily injury or death.

Flack stands near Daily so that he can cover her with her duty weapon. She commands Williams’ wife to enter the house several times. Iris says she will not leave them alone with Williams.

Williams yells for them to get off his property and takes two steps off the front porch toward the officers. Flack yells, “Less lethal. Less lethal,” and fires the shotgun at Williams.

Seemingly unfazed by the bean bag bullets, Williams is seen grabbing for his gun in the video. Flack runs from Daily’s side near the front driver’s side of Williams’ vehicle to the passenger side. Williams’ wife yells for him to stop. Williams crosses between his truck and the garage and shoots toward Flack. Flack is seen in footage running across the front of the truck toward a small tree to take cover.

Williams crosses back at the truck, continuing to shoot. She shoots back and Daily shoots at Williams. It’s unclear from the footage and testimonies thus far whether an additional officer on the scene, Jennifer Allen, shot as well.

After Daily has shot at Williams, Williams turns his back to Daily and begins manipulating his gun. Daily shoots at Williams until he falls to the ground between his vehicle and the garage.

In the video, the officers can be seen gathering behind Daily’s vehicle and confirming none of them have been shot. They approach the garage and locate Williams and his gun. Additional backup arrives and footage shows that Daily pulls Williams into the garage and Flack begins rendering first aid.

Dispatch informs Daily that Williams’ wife has also been shot. As Williams began shooting, she ran into the house. But a bullet hit her near the ankle. Along with another officer, Daily entered the house and waited with Williams’ wife as police cleared the house of any other individuals or weapons and medics arrived to treat her.

In footage shown in the courtroom Tuesday, Williams’ wife is seen sitting on the floor in a bathroom. She inquires about her husband. Daily asks how she is and she says her foot burns. She also informs Daily that her husband “is going through cancer.” Both Williams and his wife were transported to Medical City Denton for treatment and survived.

Testimonies

The state prosecution — attorneys Jesse Davis, Barrett Doran and Lauren Marshall — called five witnesses to the stand Tuesday.

The couple who called the police regarding Williams' driving and a neighbor who was outside his home, James Davis, said they did not see all of the shooting but heard the shots and Williams’ noncompliance. The bulk of Tuesday’s testimony came from the first two officers to respond to the scene: Daily and Flack. Officer Allen, third to arrive at the scene, did not testify Tuesday.

Throughout Daily and Flack’s cross-examination, the defense attorneys asked several questions about whether the officers’ actions were appropriate under Texas law and department policy. But their testimony Tuesday did not touch on any disciplinary action for the officers after the shooting.

Unbeknownst to the jury so far, Daily and Flack were both placed on administrative leave following the shooting. Chief Garner confirmed with the Record-Chronicle that following an internal affairs investigation, the Corinth Police Department found the officers did not violate any department policies.

The Texas Rangers also investigated Daily and Flack, determining the officers did not commit any misconduct that night. A Denton County grand jury reviewed the evidence and did not charge the officers with any criminal conduct relating to the shooting.

During testimony, Flack and Daily were never technically on his property, but standing on the sidewalk area of the driveway and past the sidewalk, which would be considered city property. The officers' testimony indicated they did not step onto Williams’ property until after lethal shots were exchanged.

Daily testified that as soon as he arrived outside the residence, Williams was hostile and verbally combative. While he didn’t see Williams’ alleged reckless driving, he still had the duty to investigate.

Despite Williams telling him to get off his property, Daily said his conversation with Williams was a consensual encounter. This means that an officer and a subject are choosing to engage with one another.

Daily’s testimony indicated that he was not detaining Williams at the beginning of the encounter, meaning Williams could have gone inside his home and it would not have been lawful for Daily to follow him. This would’ve required Daily to speak with witnesses and apply for a driving while intoxicated warrant.

Instead, it became what Daily called “a terrible situation.” When he saw Williams take off his jacket and retrieve his gun, Daily said he was a little scared. He said he perceived Williams’ removing his jacket, manipulating his gun, his speech and his hand gestures as threatening.

Daily said the situation became dangerous as Williams defied commands. 

During Flack’s testimony, she discussed why she took the first shots with the less-lethal shotgun. She said she and Daily were concerned that Williams’ weapon, despite being at his hip rather than in his hand, was still easily accessible and he was moving his hands a lot.

When Williams stepped off the porch, Flack said she took that as him advancing toward the officers and characterized his actions as aggressive.

When she heard Williams speaking in circles, she said she thought she could shock him out of that cyclical thinking and into complying with their orders to drop the gun and get on the ground.

This was not the case, however. When Williams was firing at her, she said she could feel grass and debris kicking up into the air. Flack said she found grass in her hair after the shooting. She said that as anyone would, she feared for her life.

Cross-examination

During cross-examination, the defense, composed of Gina Morgan and Spencer Robuck, established that Williams never made exact threatening statements to the officers’ safety or claimed he would shoot them.

Daily testified that it didn’t matter whether the gun was still brandished by the time Flack deployed the less-lethal shotgun. He said the position of Williams’ gun within easy reach, his agitated demeanor and his sporadic gestures were enough to constitute less-lethal force.

The defense asked questions that argued whether Flack had inappropriately escalated the situation with the less-lethal shotgun and whether the shotgun was actually considered less lethal.

Daily testified he did not believe Flack used excessive force or escalated the situation. Flack stated that under Texas law, anything could be considered a deadly weapon. She pointed to items around the room: a water bottle, a laptop. These could potentially be used to cause serious bodily injury or death, she said. What matters more is the intent and the fact that the less-lethal shotgun was not deadly in this case, she said.

Though Flack loudly announced the gun was less lethal, Daily testified that this was mostly so that other officers would not think she was firing lethal rounds and shoot lethal rounds themselves. It was not for Williams’ knowledge, he testified.

Regardless of whether Williams was armed, however, Flack testified it would’ve been justified for her to deploy the less-lethal shotgun because he advanced at them.

The defense argued that Williams was never informed he was detained and that because a less-lethal shotgun could technically be a deadly weapon, he could have perceived his life was in danger and shot back in self-defense.

Daily and Flack appeared to somewhat disagree about whether Williams was detained. Daily testified that because he did not see Williams driving, he didn’t immediately have cause to detain him. Daily testified once he saw Williams holding his gun, he had cause to detain him for alleged unlawful carrying of a weapon. It is illegal for a person to carry a weapon while intoxicated.

The defense argued about whether Williams was unlawfully carrying if he was on his own property. However, camera footage indicates Williams had his gun on his person before he arrived at his home. As the state objected that the defense was misstating Texas law, Judge Lee Gabriel, who was presiding over the 462nd District courtroom, assured the jury that the court would inform them what the law was.

Flack said that she believed Daily had justification to detain Williams on suspicion of driving while intoxicated from the start and that she understood him to be detained when she arrived. She said she and Daily had only exchanged about 10 words from when she arrived to when the shooting occurred.

In both cross-examinations, the defense asked the officers if Flack escalated the incident by using the less-lethal shotgun. Both officers testified they did not think this was the case.

Flack said that while the situation escalated while she was there, she did not believe it was due to her actions. She said she believed Williams was already at his maximum and that anyone’s efforts to de-escalate would have failed.

The court recessed before Flack’s testimony finished. Williams’ father, who was in the gallery watching the trial, suddenly collapsed. The jury was escorted from the courtroom as law enforcement officers assessed the man. Paramedics arrived to transport him to a local hospital.

As it was about 5 p.m., Judge Gabriel informed the jury and courtroom that they would recess for the day. The trial is expected to pick up again Wednesday morning with the rest of Flack’s testimony.