State troopers no longer will shoot from helicopters at fleeing suspects, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety said Thursday.
The announcement by DPS Director Steve McCraw during testimony before the state House Appropriations Committee came four months after a DPS sharpshooter in a helicopter killed two Guatemalan immigrants as he tried to disable a smuggler's speeding pickup near the Rio Grande Valley town of La Joya.
At the time, a nationally known use of force expert had questioned the policy, saying it was unusual and ineffective, and civil rights groups called for an end to such shootings.
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