Defendants on trial for the nonfatal shooting of a police officer outside an immigration detention center July 4 cannot claim self-defense, a Fort Worth federal judge ruled Tuesday.
Despite objections from five defense attorneys, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Pittman found it’s legally invalid for the nine defendants — including Benjamin Song, who Pittman for the first time referred to as the shooter — to claim Alvarado Police Lt. Thomas Gross was shot to protect Song or a third person Gross saw running when he arrived on the scene.
Pittman granted the government’s Friday motion to prohibit the defense from posing that theory during trial, but he said it was the government’s responsibility to make objections to evidence suggesting self defense or third-party defense…