A US Army sergeant, Daniel Perry, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for murdering a protester at a Black Lives Matter rally in Austin, Texas in 2020. Perry fatally shot 28-year-old Air Force veteran Garrett Foster two months after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The shooting occurred during a racial justice rally, and Perry was found guilty of murder by a Texas jury in April 2021.
Perry faced between five and 99 years in prison for the crime, and his defense team had asked for a sentence of 10 years. However, the prosecution asked for at least 25 years in prison due to Perry's history of racist and inflammatory social media posts before the shooting. Perry's legal team argued that his actions were justified as self-defense, claiming that Foster was going to aim the firearm at him.
The sentencing comes amid political controversy, with Texas Governor Greg Abbott pushing for Perry's pardon. The governor has requested the state Board of Pardons and Paroles to expedite a review of the case before a sentence was handed down. However, the board has yet to make a decision on the case.
The shooting case highlights the fraught political issues of gun rights, open-carry laws, self-defense, and Black Lives Matter protests. Perry and Foster were both White, and prosecutors argued that Perry initiated the fatal encounter when he drove his vehicle into a crowd gathered at the protest. Foster was openly carrying an assault-style rifle, which is legal in Texas, and approached Perry's car. Perry fatally shot him with a handgun.
After the sentencing, Foster's family expressed their satisfaction with the 25-year sentence, praising their son's strong moral beliefs in racial equality. His sister, Anna Mayo, called Perry a "small man" with no honorable traits and accused him of killing a veteran for exercising his constitutional rights to protest and open carry.
Perry served as an infantryman since January 2012, including stints in Afghanistan and Poland, but he is "pending separation from the Army," according to Army spokesperson Bryce S. Dubee. The Army has reviewed the evidence released by the Travis County District Court and has passed the information to the Army Criminal Investigation Division to conduct an independent review of the allegations contained within the document.
The case has been closely watched by both sides of the political spectrum, with the shooting taking place during a time of heightened sensitivity around social justice issues. While the governor has called for Perry's pardon, Travis County District Attorney José Garza rejected the defense's criticism and said the issues were all considered by a grand jury, judge and trial jury.