Bowing to public criticism, a pending grand jury investigation and an FBI probe, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has banned its officers from shooting at suspects from the air except under exceptional circumstances. The change comes four months after a DPS sharpshooter in a helicopter shot and killed two Guatemalan immigrants hiding under a tarp—which he believed concealed drugs—in the back of a speeding pickup truck near the South Texas border town of La Joya (population: 3,985).

The victims, José Leonardo Coj Cumar, a father of three, and Marcos Antonio Castro Estrada, a father of two, were both from the town of San Martín Jilotepeque.

Facing questions from the Texas House Appropriations Committee on Thursday, DPS Director Steve McCraw insisted that the change was not a response to the shooting.

“This is not a reflection on what happened there,” McCraw claimed, despite the fact that the new policy would prohibit the La Joya shooting. “I’m a firm believer they did exactly what they thought they needed to do,” said McCraw, who nonetheless conceded that he is “convinced now that from a helicopter platform we shouldn’t shoot unless being shot at or if someone (else) is being shot at.”

The new policy—adopted unobtrusively last week but not revealed until Thursday—states that “a firearms discharge from an aircraft is authorized only when an officer reasonably believes that the suspect has used or is about to use deadly force by use of a deadly weapon against the air crew, ground officers or innocent third parties.” It further clarifies that reckless or aggressive driving do not constitute use of a deadly weapon.

DPS, the only state law enforcement agency along the Southwestern border that allows aerial shooting, also revealed that officers have shot at fleeing vehicles five times in the past two years, but the tactic was effective in only one instance.

Last November, Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra asked DPS to stop aerial shooting while his grand jury investigation into the La Joya incident is ongoing.

The Texas American Civil Liberties Union, which had also sought an end to the DPS practice, issued a statement applauding McCraw’s announcement Thursday.

“We are relieved that Texas is ending this extreme practice, which no other Southwestern border states have ever allowed,” said executive director Terri Burke. “We hope that this decision is a step, if only a small one, toward ending the culture of violence that pervades enforcement of border security in Texas.” Referencing the five admitted aerial shootings, Burke pointed out that “In none of the previous incidents were DPS officers being fired upon.”

-Matt Bewig

To Learn More:

DPS Reverses Course on Allowing Shooting from Helicopters (by Brenda Bell and Jeremy Schwartz, Austin American-Statesman)

Texas Tightens Rules on Shooting from Helicopters (by Paul J. Weber, Associated Press)

Outrage in Texas After Airborne Police Sharpshooter Kills 2 (by Manny Fernandez, New York Times)

Fewer Illegally Crossing into U.S., but More are Dying (by David Wallechinsky and Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

Border Patrol Agents Kill 27-Year Resident of U.S. and 15-Year-Old Boy (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)