FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A Fort Worth police officer involved in the fatal shooting of an armed homeowner has been fired in an unrelated case.
In a statement, Police Chief Jeffrey Halstead says Officer Benjamin B. Hanlon was fired for falsifying an arrest affidavit in an Aug. 9 traffic stop. Halstead says drugs were found on the suspect during jail booking, but Hanlon’s affidavit stated that they were found on the suspect at the scene of the traffic stop.
Hanlon was still on probation, so his firing can’t be appealed.
Hanlon was one of two officers who went to an east Fort Worth home on a burglary call before dawn May 28. But they went to the wrong house, encountered 72-year-old Jerry Waller and shot him dead when he refused to drop his handgun.