Falkenberg2.pdf
Content
Family’s loss made more tragic by deputy’s lawsuit
The wife’s voice quivers. Her desperation is
clear. The call to 911 is her
last-ditch plea to save her
husband, and maybe even
her family.
For days, her husband,
Kemal Yazar, a 43-yearold rug importer and
loving, devoted father
to their three young
children in Seabrook,
had been acting erratically. He refused
to eat or sleep. He
talked of apocalypse. He talked of
President Barack
Obama being the antiChrist.
“My husband is disconnected from reality,”
Marlene Yazar is heard
telling the operator from
her mother’s house in
Katy, just before noon on
Dec. 30, 2012. “He’s
just talking crazy
things, like the
world is going
to end. And
he’s been like
this for two or three days
now.”
The operator pounds
her with questions and
she answers them. No, he
doesn’t have a weapon,
she says, but yes, he
could become violent if he
thinks officers are coming
to attack him.
Help is on the way, the
operator says. A paramedic is first on the scene,
but he quickly retreats
LISA FALKENBERG
Commentary
after Kemal yells and
throws a Bible at his back.
Harris County Deputy
Brady Pullen arrives at
12:17 p.m., followed by
another deputy. From
here, accounts vary, but
it’s clear there’s a struggle
between Pullen and Kemal that leads the officers
to draw Tasers and guns.
In less than 10 minutes,
the delusional man is
shot several times. He is
pronounced dead an hour
later at a Katy hospital.
The family is devas-
Photo courtesy of the Yazar family
Kemal Yazar, pictured with his children, was shot to
death in 2012 by sheriff’s deputies in Katy.
Falkenberg continues on B7
Inside
Outlook: Invest in health
of Galveston Bay. B8
Houston Chronicle | HoustonChronicle.com and chron.com | Sunday, March 30, 2014 | Section B
Houston Chronicle
xxx *
@HoustonChron
Talk of
reform
causes
worry
at HFD
Mayor adamant
that city far from
making changes
By Mike Morris
Brett Coomer photos / Houston Chronicle
After a completed restoration, the 1877 tall ship Elissa once again returned to the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Reaching a new high
on the high seas
After a $3 million makeover, the 1877 tall
ship Elissa set sail in Galveston on Saturday for the first time in more than four
years. Elissa, a three-master barque, is one
of the oldest ships sailing today. A national
historic landmark, Elissa is moored at the
Texas Seaport Museum.
Raising
the
masts
1Gallery: See
more photos
of the tall ship
Elissa at
chron.com/
elissa
Crew members prepare to sail with guests and supporters
onboard for a firsthand look at its restoration.
Cooper’s Waco yarn spins long, but legacy is longer
JOE
HOLLEY
Native
Texan
Driving through downtown
Waco the other day, I stopped
at a light on Austin Avenue at
18th Street and glanced at the
tan-brick Cooper Mansion,
stately and well-maintained
as always and reminiscent of
the city’s best-known
writer. I thought about
rereading “Sironia,
Texas,” Madison Cooper Jr.’s
award-winning novel, when I
got home.
Barely out of Waco, I thought
again, not only because the
two-volume “Sironia, Texas”
is one of the longest novels in
the English language, but also
because the Waco author’s
complex tale and his rendition
of black and white Ol’ South
dialect gets to be irritating after
a thousand pages or so. Maybe
I’ll read “War and Peace” again
someday, but I’m not sure about
“Sironia, Texas,” the saga of
my hometown during the early
years of the 20th century.
Larry King — the late Texas
Holley continues on B7
Vietnam vets get long-awaited
welcome at memorial unveiling
By Peggy Fikac
AUSTIN — The
dedication of the Vietnam
Veterans Monument
at the Texas Capitol on
Saturday highlighted the
pain, pride and solidarity
of those who served in an
unpopular conflict.
“They fought, they
bled, all too often they
died for their country.
When they came home,
there wasn’t any parades.
There weren’t any picnics.
Instead they were treated
with indifference or, even
worse, with outright
scorn,” Gov. Rick Perry
said.
Perry said the bronze
sculpture of an infantry
patrol, unveiled before a
Jay Janner /
Associated Press
Vietnam continues on B6
ALL-NEW
2014 INFINITI Q50
349
$
39 MO Lease, $599 Due at signing. Excludes TT&L. 39 payments totaling $13,611, residual $24, 671. Lessee pay $0.25/mile
for mileage over 10,000 miles/year. Offer expires 3.31.14. No security deposit required. See West Houston Infiniti for details.
We reserve the right to correct any price.
Created on Adobe Document Server 2.0
HFD continues on B2
Members of
the Memorial
High School
JROTC Minutemen Battalion from
San Antonio
participate in
the dedication of the
Vietnam Veterans Monument at the
Texas Capitol
in Austin.
throng of veterans, will
“stand as a declaration
that in Texas, we understand how blessed we are
to have warriors ready to
step forward and draw a
line between us and those
who would do harm to
our citizens.”
He noted “the many
Vietnamese nationals
Inspired by luxury,
Drive by service
Rumblings of coming
reforms in the Houston Fire
Department’s operations have
union leaders and the department’s command staff wary,
despite Mayor Annise Parker’s
insistence that these concerns
are unwarranted.
HFD’s staffing shortage has
driven up overtime costs, creating a budget crisis that has, on
some days, seen ambulances
and firetrucks pulled from service. These budget discussions
have dominated City Hall in
recent weeks, leading the mayor
and some council members to
question whether the department’s $450 million budget
could be spent more efficiently.
Parker, for instance, said
she questions whether the
city should invest in more
ambulances and fewer new
firetrucks, given that 85 percent
of HFD’s calls are medical
emergencies and that firetrucks
are more expensive to purchase,
staff and maintain. She also
wonders whether the city is
“oversaturated” in the way it
places its 103 fire stations and
deploys its 216-vehicle fleet.
The mayor is adamant, however, that she will not pursue
reforms without a planned
third-party study of HFD’s
281.581.0030
12200 Katy Freeway, Houston, TX 77079
PER MONTH
for 39 months
6 at this price.
xxx*
Houston Chronicle | HoustonChronicle.com and chron.com | Sunday, March 30, 2014 |
B7
CITY & STATE
Falkenberg:
Protecting
and serving —
with lawsuit
Falkenberg from page B1
tated. Marlene loses her
soulmate and the family’s sole provider. Her
children, ages 10, 6 and 2,
lose their daddy. Then it
got worse.
One of the deputies
who was sent to protect
the family decided to
serve them instead —
with a lawsuit.
Pullen, who, according to an investigator’s
report, suffered “superficial wounds” during the
incident, accused family
members of “negligence
and recklessness” for not
fully warning him of the
“violent threat” Kemal
posed.
He also faults the caller
for not telling the operator
that Kemal, who had no
criminal record or history
of mental illness, recently
had begun experimenting with a hallucinogen
known as “DMT” he
bought on the Internet.
His wife later told investigators that Kemal mixed
the compound, known to
be used in shamanic rituals in the Amazon, with
tea, and on at least one
occasion, marijuana.
Seeking damages
Pullen says he suffered
a broken nose, needed
surgery that required him
to miss work, and had a
concussion that affected
his memory of the events.
The deputy is seeking at
least $100,000 in damages, including medical
expenses, mental anguish,
pain and suffering and
loss of past earning capacity. The first hearing in the
case is set for April 14 in
Judge Patricia Kerrigan’s
court.
Oddly, the deputy
didn’t sue Kemal’s wife,
who placed the call, but
her mother, Carmina
Figueroa, whose name
was on the home insurance policy. Figueroa
wasn’t home at the time.
She was at work at the
meat department of a
Houston H-E-B, wrapping steaks and taking
customer orders like
she’s done for 20 years.
She says she wasn’t even
aware anyone called 911
until her son-in-law was
already dead.
Compounds tragedy
In a recent interview,
Figueroa said the lawsuit
only compounds the tragedy, which has already
taken so much from the
family, including a home
left riddled with bullet
holes and bloodstains
where she couldn’t bear to
live in anymore.
“The first thing I
thought is this man is crazy,” Figueroa said about
the deputy. “Not only is he
destroying our lives, but
he’s suing me.”
Her Houston-based
attorney, Dean Blumrosen, was so appalled by
the lawsuit he agreed to
represent Figueroa for no
fee. He has asked a court
for sanctions against attorney Mark Long of New
Braunfels for even filing
the “groundless” claim.
He recently sent Long
a letter vowing to give
up his law license if the
deputy prevails in a case
he says is offensive not
only to a grieving family,
but every law enforcement officer whose job
entails inherent risk.
Long, a former Austin
police officer, offered no
apologies.
“I’m actually offended
that people would think
that police officers don’t
have civil rights to use
civil law on their behalf.
Everyone else does,” he
said. “If this case brings
an awareness that people
need to be completely, ut-
Mayra Beltrán / Houston Chronicle
Carmina Figueroa, sitting next to daughter Marlene Yazar, is being sued by Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy
Brady Pullen in the aftermath of a shooting at her home that left her son-in-law — Yazar’s husband — dead.
terly honest with 911, and
if people become aware
that police officers have
rights just like everybody
else, I’m happy. Whatever
else people think about
me, I could care less.”
Long said he and his
client have no intentions
of trying to bilk Kemal’s
mother-in-law. He says
she should have just
forwarded his letter about
the deputy’s claim to her
insurance company rather
than waiting for a lawsuit
to be filed and then finding an outside lawyer to
fight it.
In other words, she
should have just accepted
the insult to injury. I don’t
think so.
Warned 911 operator
This lawsuit is disturbing, not just because of its
callousness, but because
of the message it sends.
Sheriff Adrian Garcia
has refused to comment
on the pending litigation.
But he and others in his
department ought to be
concerned about the chilling effect it could have on
citizens who may hesitate
to call 911 for fear of getting sued.
Besides that, much of
Pullen’s case just doesn’t
add up. His lawyer’s
theory is that Marlene
somehow “sugar-coated”
the situation to the 911
operator, playing down
her husband’s potential
for violence and omitting his drug use so that
authorities would take
him to a hospital instead
of jail.
There’s no evidence
of that. Marlene told the
911 operator her husband
could get violent. The
operator didn’t ask about
drug use. And Marlene
told me she didn’t think to
mention it because, as far
as she knew, it had been
weeks since Kemal used
DMT.
“I didn’t even know
that’s what it was,” she
told me, explaining she
thought he was more than
likely possessed.
As for her mother,
who is the one being sued,
Pullen’s attorney says
she had a duty to make
the premises safe: “She
can’t just turn a blind
eye to what’s going on in
her home and leave.” But
Figueroa says she had no
knowledge of her son-inlaw’s violent state, or the
911 call.
In Texas, our law limits
police and firefighters’
right to sue in such cases,
reasoning that they as-
sume the inherent risk of
their jobs when responding to emergency situations. The only exception
is if someone is grossly
negligent or intentionally
tries to mislead the officer
about danger.
Dangerous situation
To prove his case, Pullen needs to show that
Figueroa knew about a
danger that the deputy
wasn’t warned about. The
truth is, Pullen got plenty
of warning. Marlene
warned in the 911 call. A
call slip advised of a male
who could get violent.
Then there’s the
paramedic, Percy Spradlin, who had the Bible
thrown at his back. In
his sworn statement, the
paramedic, a field training
officer with the Cy-Fair
Volunteer Fire Department, says he requested a
deputy to respond “priority 1” to the situation and
instructed his partner to
tell dispatch they were
pulling out due “to an extremely violent patient.”
Most importantly, Spradlin states that he talked to
Pullen before he entered
the house, explaining
“what had happened and
that we had retreated
from the scene for our
Holley: Novel went from best-seller to bust
Madison
Cooper
Jr. took
11 years
to write
“Sironia,
Texas.”
The novel
won the
Houghton
Mifflin
Literary
Award, but
readers
found the
2,119-page
book
heavy going.
Holley from page B1
writer, not the talk-show
host — used to tell about
attempting to plow
through “Sironia, Texas”
while on a train years
ago. He got up to go to
the bathroom, and when
he came back the book
was gone. He said he was
relieved.
I can understand, and
yet there was more to
the Cooper story outside
the pages of his literary
behemoth.
Old South
The scion of a wealthy
wholesale grocery merchant, he was born in
Waco in 1894.
Except for his time at
the University of Texas
in Austin and in France
as an Army lieutenant
during World War I, he
lived his whole life in the
Italian baroque mansion
on Waco’s main street, a
house with 50 columns,
with balconies and
stained-glass windows
and, on the southeast
corner, an octagonal
cupola with open sides.
Cooper had a third-floor
office in the cupola, where
he not only ran the family
business but also wrote
his novel, a thinly veiled,
richly layered tale of
Waco through about 1921.
It took him 11 years.
The Coopers were
prominent Wacoans, but
few of his neighbors knew
that Madison Jr. was writing a novel (about them,
no less). A lifelong bachelor, semi-reclusive, he
went around town, usually on foot, in raggedy
shoes, baggy pants and an
Cooper
Foundation
old plaid flannel shirt that
he layered with a motheaten sweater during cold
weather. He carried his
grocery-business bills
and receipts in a shabby
leather briefcase.
Tam Lipscomb, the
chief character in “Sironia, Texas,” resembles
Cooper, without the
eccentricities. Born in
1895, Tam’s early life is
influenced by post-Civil
War changes in Sironia
(Waco), by complex and
subtle racial mores and by
the town’s gradual shift
from domination by the
“Old Order” to that of the
“New Southwest.” It’s an
evolution similar to the
change that takes place
in William Faulkner’s
Yoknapatawpha County
novels, where the old, genteel South gives way to the
grasping, crass Snopes.
(Keep in mind that Waco
in its early years was
Southern to the core.)
For Cooper, the ubiq-
uitous hackberry tree
symbolized how the new
generation replaced the
old in Sironia. The tough,
hardy hackberry crowded
out the slow-growing,
graceful and aristocratic
magnolia.
1952 best-seller
Published in 1952,
the same year as Ernest
Hemingway’s “The Old
Man and the Sea,” John
Steinbeck’s “East of Eden”
and Edna Ferber’s “Giant,” Cooper’s magnum
opus was 840,000 words
long. At 2,119 pages it was
longer than the Old and
New Testaments combined, longer than “Gone
With the Wind.”
The 58-year-old “overnight sensation” won the
Houghton Mifflin Literary Award — he bought a
Brooks Brothers suit for
the award ceremonies in
New York — and was on
the New York Times bestseller list for 11 weeks.
After a few months,
though, his novel sank
like a stone, a very heavy
stone. With its multigenerational characters,
83 in all, and its complex interwoven stories,
“Sironia, Texas” proved
to be heavy going for most
readers. He published one
other novel, “The Haunted Hacienda,” which went
nowhere.
A jogger before the term
became familiar, Cooper
circled the cinder track in
street clothes most afternoons at Waco’s Muni Stadium. On Sept. 29, 1956, he
suffered a post-jog heart
attack and died behind the
wheel of his Packard in
the stadium parking lot.
He was 62.
Foundation lifts city
Although the obituaries prominently mentioned “Sironia, Texas,”
Cooper had a longerlasting effect on his
hometown that wasn’t so
easily forgotten. In 1943,
a decade before his novel
appeared, he established
the Madison A. and
Martha Roane Cooper
Foundation in honor of
his parents. He endowed
the foundation with
$25,000 and made sure
the rest of his $3 million
estate would go to the
foundation when he died.
Its purpose, he wrote, was
“to make Waco a better
place in which to live.”
The Cooper name over
the years has become part
of the civic landscape.
Waco’s regional airport is
named for Madison Cooper. The foundation he established has helped fund
schools and endowed
libraries in low-income
neighborhoods, has
helped with desperately
needed downtown redevelopment, has provided
seed money for Baylor
and Waco ISD initiatives,
along with hundreds of
other Waco-area projects
too numerous to mention. “Some say we’re the
conscience of the community,” foundation director
Felicia Chase Goodman
told me recently.
Goodman, 41, is a Waco
native who has been foundation director for nearly
two years. I asked her
an impertinent question:
Have you read “Sironia,
Texas”?
“Uhhh, no,” she said.
“My husband went out
and bought me a very nice
first edition when I took
this job, and I tried. But
there are more important
things to do.”
[email protected]
twitter.com/holleynews
safety.”
It’s true that Pullen faced a dangerous
situation when he entered
Figueroa’s red brick
home on that December
afternoon. I don’t know
whether his use of force
was warranted. The
family says it wasn’t, but
Pullen, a peace officer for
about 15 years, maintained in his statement
that Kemal had tried to
take his gun. A grand
jury late last year declined
to indict him or another
deputy in the death.
What’s not in dispute
is that a citizen’s call for
help ended tragically.
Now the family’s loss has
been made more tragic by
a deputy’s greed.
In this litigious culture,
the definition of frivolity
is ever expanding. We’re
almost numb to callous
money-grabs.
But we expect more
from people we hold up
as heroes. We revere first
responders because they
risk their lives for ours,
they run toward danger
while we run away.
True heroes, though,
possess a virtue as vital as
their bravery. It is called
decency.
[email protected]
Osvaldo
FernandezAguilar is
accused of
killing a
pregnant
woman.
Suspect
in slaying
sought
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Police are looking for a
man charged with capital
murder in the slaying of a
pregnant woman whose
husband found her dead
at work.
Osvaldo FernandezAguilar, 23, is accused of
killing Maria Lucrecia, 27,
who suffered blunt force
trauma to the head, Houston police said.
Lucrecia’s husband
and 5-year-old son found
her dead about 5:25 p.m.
March 22 at the club where
she cleaned in the 6800
block of South Gessner.
Her husband came to
the business because he
hadn’t been able to reach
her on the phone, police
said.
Lucrecia, who was five
months pregnant, was
working when someone
came into the club and
killed her, police said.
The suspect also stole
cash from a register before
leaving the scene, according to a Houston Police
Department news release.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts
of Fernandez-Aguilar
is urged to contact the
HPD Homicide Division
at 713-308-3600 or Crime
Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS
(8477).
Sunday, March 30, 2014
e tragic by deputy’s lawsuit
ys
he
he
ng
he
ne,
Commentary
after Kemal yells and
throws a Bible at his back.
Harris County Deputy
Brady Pullen arrives at
12:17 p.m., followed by
another deputy. From
here, accounts vary, but
it’s clear there’s a struggle
between Pullen and Kemal that leads the officers
to draw Tasers and guns.
In less than 10 minutes,
the delusional man is
shot several times. He is
pronounced dead an hour
later at a Katy hospital.
The family is devas-
Falkenberg continues on B7
Photo courtesy of the Yazar family
Photo
courtesy of the Yazar family
Kemal Yazar, pictured with this children, wa shot to death in
Kemal
Yazar, pictured with his children, was shot to
2012 by sheriff’s deputies in Katy.
death in 2012 by sheriff’s deputies in Katy.
Family’s loss made more
Inside lawsuit
tragic by deputy’s
Outlook: Invest in health
Byof
Lisa
Falkenberg
Galveston
Bay. B8
The wife’s voice
quivers. Her desperation is clear.
The call to 911@HoustonChron
is her last-ditch plea to save her
Houston Chronicle
xxx *
husband, and maybe even her family.
For days, her husband, Kemal Yazar, a 43-year-old rug importer and loving, devoted father to their
three young children in Seabrook, had been acting erratically. He refused to eat or sleep. He talked of
apocalypse. He talked of President Barack Obama being the anti-Christ.
“My husband is disconnected from reality, “ Marlene Yazar is heard telling the operator from her
mother’s house in Katy, just before noon on Dec. 30, 2012. “He’s just talking crazy things, like the
world is going to end. And he’s been like this for two or three days now.”
The operator pounds her with questions and she answers them. No, he doesn’t have a weapon, she
says, but yes, he could become violent if he thinks officers are coming to attack him.
Help is on the way, the operator says. A paramedic is first on the scene, but he quickly retreats after
Kemal yells and throws a Bible at his back.
Harris County Deputy Brady Pullen arrives at 12:17 p.m., followed by another deputy. From here,
accounts vary, but it’s clear there’s a struggle between Pullen and Kemal that leads the officers to draw
Tasers and guns.
In less than 10 minutes, the delusional man is shot several times. He is pronounced dead an hour
later at a Katy hospital.
The family is devastated. Marlene loses her soulmate and the family’s sole provider. Her children,
ages 10, 6 and 2, lose their daddy. Then it got worse.
One of the deputies who was sent to protect the family decided to serve them instead - with a lawsuit.
Pullen, who, according to an investigator’s report, suffered “superficial wounds” during the
incident, accused family members of “negligence and recklessness” for not fully warning him of the
“violent threat” Kemal posed.
He also faults the caller for not telling the operator that Kemal, who had no criminal record or
history of mental illness, recently had begun experimenting with a hallucinogen known as “DMT” he
bought on the Internet. His wife later told investigators that Kemal mixed the compound, known to be
used in shamanic rituals in the Amazon, with tea, and on at least one occasion, marijuana.
0, 2014 | Section B
Talk of
reform
causes
worry
at HFD
Mayor adamant
that city far from
making changes
By Mike Morris
Seeking damages
Rumblings of coming
Pullen says he suffered a broken nose, needed surgery that required him to miss work, and had a
reforms in the Houston Fire
concussion that affected his memory of the events.
The deputy
is seeking
at least $100,000 in damages,
Department’s
operations
have
including medical expenses, mental anguish, pain
and
suffering
anddepartloss of past earning capacity. The
union
leaders
and the
Brett Coomer photos / Houston Chronicle
ment’s command staff wary,
xxx*
Houston Chronicle | HoustonChronicle.com and chron.com | Sunday, March 30, 2014 |
B7
Y & STATE
lkenberg:
otecting
d serving —
th lawsuit
from page B1
ene loses her
nd the famovider. Her
ges 10, 6 and 2,
addy. Then it
he deputies
ent to protect
decided to
instead —
suit.
who, accordvestigator’s
ered “superfis” during the
ccused family
f “negligence
ssness” for not
ng him of the
reat” Kemal
Carmina
Figueroa,
sitting next
to daughter
Marlene Yazar,
is being sued
by Harris
County
Sheriff’s
Deputy Brady
Pullen in the
aftermath of
a shooting at
her home that
left her son-inlaw - Yazar’s
husband - dead.
was on the home insurance policy. Figueroa
wasn’t home at the time.
She was at work at the
meat department of a
Houston H-E-B, wrapping steaks and taking
customer orders like
she’s done for 20 years.
She says she wasn’t even
aware anyone called 911
until her son-in-law was
already dead.
Compounds tragedy
In a recent interview,
Figueroa said the lawsuit
only compounds the tragedy, which has already
taken so much from the
family, including a home
left riddled with bullet
holes and bloodstains
where she couldn’t bear to
live in anymore.
“The first thing I
thought is this man is crazy,” Figueroa said about
the deputy. “Not only is he
destroying our lives, but
he’s suing me.”
Her Houston-based
attorney, Dean Blumrosen, was so appalled by
the lawsuit he agreed to
represent Figueroa for no
fee. He has asked a court
for sanctions against attorney Mark Long of New
Braunfels for even filing
the “groundless” claim.
He recently sent Long
a letter vowing to give
up his law license if the
deputy prevails in a case
he says is offensive not
only to a grieving family,
but every law enforcement officer whose job
entails inherent risk.
Long, a former Austin
police officer, offered no
apologies.
“I’m actually offended
that people would think
that police officers don’t
have civil rights to use
civil law on their behalf.
Everyone else does,” he
said. “If this case brings
an awareness that people
need to be completely, ut-
Mayra Beltrán /
Houston Chronicle
Mayra Beltrán / Houston Chronicle
Carmina Figueroa, sitting next to daughter Marlene Yazar, is being sued by Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy
Brady Pullen in the aftermath of a shooting at her home that left her son-in-law — Yazar’s husband — dead.
first hearing in the
casewithis911,set
April
14 in Judge
Patricia
court.
safety.”
theory
is that Marlene
sume the inherent
risk of Kerrigan’s
terly honest
and for
It’s true that Pulsomehow “sugar-coated”
their jobs when respondif people become aware
len faced
a dangerous
situation to thewife,
911
ing
to emergency
situa- the
that policedidn’t
officers havesuethe
Oddly, the deputy
Kemal’s
who
placed
call,
but
her mother, Carmina Figueroa,
situation when he entered
operator, playing down
tions. The only exception
aults the caller
rights just like everybody
Figueroa’s
red
brick
her
husband’s
potential
is
if
someone
is
grossly
ng the operatorwhose name was
else,
I’m
happy.
Whatever
on the home insurance
policy.
Figueroa wasn’t
home at the time. She was at work at
home on that December
for violence and omitnegligent or intentionally
, who had no
else people think about
ting his drug
use so that wrapping
tries to mislead the
officer
cord or historythe meat department
me, I couldof
carea
less.”
afternoon.
I don’t know customer orders like she’s done
Houston
H-E-B,
steaks
and
taking
authorities would take
about danger.
lness, recently
Long said he and his
whether his use of force
him to a hospital instead
experimentclient have no intentions
was warranted. The
wasn’t
even aware anyone
called 911
her
of jail.
Dangerous situation
hallucinogen for 20 years. Sheofsays
trying to she
bilk Kemal’s
familyuntil
says it wasn’t,
but son-in-law was already dead.
DMT” he
the Internet.
ter told invesat Kemal mixed
und, known to
shamanic rituAmazon, with
at least one
marijuana.
mother-in-law. He says
she should have just
forwarded his letter about
the deputy’s claim to her
insurance company rather
than waiting for a lawsuit
to be filed and then finding an outside lawyer to
fight it.
In other words, she
should have just accepted
the insult to injury. I don’t
think so.
There’s no evidence
of that. Marlene told the
911 operator her husband
could get violent. The
operator didn’t ask about
drug use. And Marlene
told me she didn’t think to
mention it because, as far
as she knew, it had been
weeks since Kemal used
DMT.
“I didn’t even know
that’s what it was,” she
told me, explaining she
thought he was more than
likely possessed.
As for her mother,
who is the one being sued,
Pullen’s attorney says
she had a duty to make
the premises safe: “She
can’t just turn a blind
eye to what’s going on in
her home and leave.” But
Figueroa says she had no
knowledge of her son-inlaw’s violent state, or the
911 call.
In Texas, our law limits
police and firefighters’
right to sue in such cases,
reasoning that they as-
To prove his case, Pullen needs to show that
Figueroa knew about a
danger that the deputy
wasn’t warned about. The
truth is, Pullen got plenty
of warning. Marlene
warned in the 911 call. A
call slip advised of a male
who could get violent.
Then there’s the
paramedic, Percy Spradlin, who had the Bible
thrown at his back. In
his sworn statement, the
paramedic, a field training
officer with the Cy-Fair
Volunteer Fire Department, says he requested a
deputy to respond “priority 1” to the situation and
instructed his partner to
tell dispatch they were
pulling out due “to an extremely violent patient.”
Most importantly, Spradlin states that he talked to
Pullen before he entered
the house, explaining
“what had happened and
that we had retreated
from the scene for our
Pullen, a peace officer for
about 15 years, maintained in his statement
that Kemal had tried to
take his gun. A grand
jury late last year declined
to indict him or another
deputy in the death.
What’s not in dispute
is that a citizen’s call for
help ended tragically.
Now the family’s loss has
been made more tragic by
a deputy’s greed.
In this litigious culture,
the definition of frivolity
is ever expanding. We’re
almost numb to callous
money-grabs.
But we expect more
from people we hold up
as heroes. We revere first
responders because they
risk their lives for ours,
they run toward danger
while we run away.
True heroes, though,
possess a virtue as vital as
their bravery. It is called
decency.
Texas.”
The novel
won the
Houghton
Mifflin
Literary
Award, but
readers
found the
2,119-page
book
heavy going.
his parents. He endowed
the foundation with
$25,000 and made sure
the rest of his $3 million
estate would go to the
foundation when he died.
Its purpose, he wrote, was
“to make Waco a better
place in which to live.”
The Cooper name over
the years has become part
of the civic landscape.
Waco’s regional airport is
named for Madison Cooper. The foundation he established has helped fund
schools and endowed
libraries in low-income
neighborhoods, has
helped with desperately
needed downtown redevelopment, has provided
seed money for Baylor
and Waco ISD initiatives,
along with hundreds of
other Waco-area projects
too numerous to mention. “Some say we’re the
conscience of the community,” foundation director
Felicia Chase Goodman
told me recently.
Goodman, 41, is a Waco
native who has been foundation director for nearly
two years. I asked her
an impertinent question:
Have you read “Sironia,
Texas”?
“Uhhh, no,” she said.
“My husband went out
and bought me a very nice
first edition when I took
this job, and I tried. But
there are more important
things to do.”
in slaying
Compounds tragedy
In a recent interview, Figueroa said the lawsuit only compounds the tragedy, which has already
taken so much from the family, including a home left riddled with bullet holes and bloodstains where
she couldn’t bear to live in anymore.
amages
ays he suffered
“The first thing I thought is this man is crazy, “ Figueroa said about the deputy. “Not only is he
ose, needed
at required him
destroying our lives,
but he’s suing me.”
rk, and had a
Warned 911 operator
n that affected
This lawsuit is disturbHer
Houston-based
attorney,
Dean Blumrosen, was so appalled by the lawsuit he agreed to
y of the events.
ing, not just because
of its
y is seeking at
callousness, but because
for no
fee. He has asked a court for sanctions against attorney Mark Long of New
000 in dam- represent Figueroa
of the message
it sends.
ding medical
Sheriff Adrian Garcia
mental anguish,Braunfels for even
has refused
to comment
filing
the “groundless” claim. He recently sent Long a letter vowing to give up his
uffering and
on the pending litigation.
earning capac-law license if theBut
he and othersprevails
in his
deputy
in a case he says is offensive not only to a grieving family, but every
t hearing in the
department ought to be
or April 14 in law enforcementconcerned
aboutwhose
the chillofficer
job
entails inherent risk.
cia Kerrigan’s
ing effect it could have on
citizens who may hesitate
Long, a formerto call
Austin
police officer, offered no apologies.
he deputy
911 for fear of getKemal’s wife,
ting sued.
“I’m
actually
offended
that
d the call, but
Besides that, much of people would think that police officers don’t have civil rights to use civil
r, Carmina
Pullen’s case just doesn’t
else does, “ he said. “If this case
brings an awareness that people need to
whose name law on their behalf.
add up.Everyone
His lawyer’s
[email protected]
be completely, utterly honest with 911, and if people become aware that police officers have rights just
everybody else, I’m happy. Whatever else people think about Osvaldo
me, I could care less.”
Fernandezlley: like
Novel
went from best-seller to bust
Aguilar is
Long said he and his client have no intentions of trying to bilk Kemal’s
mother-in-law. He says she
accused of
easily forgotten. In 1943,
m page B1
Madison
killing a
should have just forwarded his letter about
the
deputy’s claim to her
insurance company rather than
a decade before his novel
Cooper
pregnant
appeared, he established
the talk-show
Jr. took
woman.
waiting
for
a
lawsuit
to
be
filed
and
then
finding
an
outside
lawyer
to
fight it.
the Madison A. and
d to tell about
11 years
Martha Roane Cooper
to plow
to write
In other words, she should have just
accepted
thein honor
insult
to
injury. I don’t think so.
Foundation
of
ironia, Texas”
“Sironia,
Suspect
train years
up to go to
om, and when
ck the book
He said he was
Warned 911 operator
sought
This lawsuit is disturbing, not just because of its callousness, but because of the message it sends.
derstand, and
as more to
Sheriff Adrian Garcia has refused to comment on the pending
litigation. But he and others in his
story outside
Police are looking for a
f his literary
charged with capital
department ought to be concerned about the chilling effect itman
could
have
murder in the slaying
of a on citizens who may hesitate to
pregnant woman whose
call 911 for fear of getting sued.
husband found her dead
n of a wealthy
at work.
Besides that, much of Pullen’s case just doesn’t add up. HisOsvaldo
lawyer’s
grocery merFernandez- theory is that Marlene somehow
was born in
Aguilar, 23, is accused of
94.
killing Maria
27,
“sugar-coated”
the situation toAfter
thea few
911
operator, playing down
herLucrecia,
husband’s
potential for violence and
or his time at
months,
who suffered blunt force
old plaid flannel shirt that uitous hackberry tree
symbolized
how the
new authorities
sity of Texas omitting
though, his novel sank
trauma
to the head, Houshe layered withhis
a mothdrug
use
so
that
would
take
him
to
a
hospital
instead
of
jail.
generation replaced the
nd in France
like a stone, a very heavy
ton police said.
eaten sweater during cold
old in Sironia. The tough,
y lieutenant
stone. With its multiLucrecia’s husband
weather. He carried his
There’s no evidence
of that. Marlene told the 911 operator and
her
husband could get violent. The operator
hardy hackberry crowded generational characters,
rld War I, he
5-year-old son found
grocery-business bills
out the slow-growing,
hole life in the
83 in all, and its comher dead about 5:25 p.m.
and receipts in a shabby
didn’t
ask
about
drug
use.
And
Marlene
told
me
she
didn’t
think
mention
it because, as far as she
graceful and aristocratic
oque mansion
plex interwoven stories,
March 22 at to
the club
where
leather briefcase.
magnolia.
main street, a
“Sironia, Texas” proved
she cleaned in the 6800
Tam Lipscomb, the
it had
used
50 columns, knew,
be heavy going
for mostDMT.
block of South Gessner.
chief character
in “Siro-been weeks since toKemal
1952 best-seller
nies and
readers. He published one
Her husband came to
nia, Texas,” resembles
“I didn’t
even know
what
it was,
“ she told me, explaining
shehethought he was more than likely
Publishedthat’s
in 1952,
ss windows
other novel,
“The Hauntthe business because
Cooper,
without the
the same year as Ernest
southeast
ed Hacienda,” which went
hadn’t been able to reach
eccentricities. Born in
Hemingway’s “The Old
octagonal
nowhere.
her on the phone, police
1895, Tam’s early life is
possessed.
Man and the Sea,” John
h open sides.
A jogger before the term
said.
influenced by post-Civil
Steinbeck’s who
“East of Eden”
d a third-floor
became
familiar,
Cooper sued, Pullen’s attorney
Lucrecia, whosays
was five she had a duty to make the
War
changes
in
Sironia
As
for
her
mother,
is
the
one
being
and Edna Ferber’s “Gie cupola, where (Waco), by complex and
circled the cinder track in
months pregnant, was
ran the family subtle racial mores and by ant,” Cooper’s magnum
street clothes most afterworking when someone
premises
safe: “She
can’t just turn
a blind eye to what’s going
on in her home and leave.” But Figueroa
ut also wrote
noons at Waco’s Muni Stacame into the club and
the town’s gradual shift
opus was 840,000 words
thinly veiled,
dium. On Sept. 29, 1956, he
killed her, police said.
from domination by the
long. At 2,119 pages it was
says
she
had
no
knowledge
of
her
son-in-law’s
violent
state,
or
thealso
911stolecall.
red tale of
suffered a post-jog heart
The suspect
“Old Order” to that of the
longer than the Old and
ugh about 1921.
attack and died behind the
cash from a register before
“New Southwest.” It’s an
New Testaments comIn Texas,
our law
limits
police
firefighters’
right to sue
inthesuch
cases, reasoning that they
11 years.
wheeland
of his Packard
in
leaving
scene, accordevolution
similar to the
bined, longer
than “Gone
pers were
the stadium parking lot.
ing to a Houston Police
change that takes place
With the Wind.”
the inherent
risk “overof their
jobs
when responding to emergency
situations. The only exception is
Wacoans, but assume
He was
62.
Department news release.
in William Faulkner’s
The 58-year-old
neighbors knew Yoknapatawpha County
Anyone with informanight sensation” won the
on Jr. was writ-if someone
Foundation
lifts city
tion on the
whereabouts
novels, where the old,
Houghton negligent
Mifflin Literisgengrossly
or
intentionally
tries to mislead
the
officer about danger.
(about them,
Although the obituarof Fernandez-Aguilar
teel South gives way to the ary Award — he bought a
lifelong bachies prominently menis urged to contact the
grasping,
crass Snopes. situation
Brooks Brothers suit for
Dangerous
reclusive, he
tioned “Sironia, Texas,”
HPD Homicide Division
(Keep in mind that Waco
the award ceremonies in
nd town, usuCooper had a longerat 713-308-3600 or Crime
in
its early
years was
New YorkPullen
— and was onneeds
To
prove
his
case,
to
show
that
Figueroa
knew
about a danger that the deputy wasn’t
, in raggedy
Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS
Southern to the core.)
the New York Times best- lasting effect on his
[email protected]
gy pants and an
hometown that wasn’t so
(8477).
For Cooper, the ubiqseller list for 11 weeks.
twitter.com/holleynews
warned about. The truth is, Pullen got plenty of warning. Marlene
warned in the 911 call. A call slip
advised of a male who could get violent.
Then there’s the paramedic, Percy Spradlin, who had the Bible thrown at his back. In his sworn
Cooper
Foundation
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
statement, the paramedic, a field training officer with the Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department, says he
requested a deputy to respond “priority 1” to the situation and instructed his partner to tell dispatch
they were pulling out due “to an extremely violent patient.” Most importantly, Spradlin states that
he talked to Pullen before he entered the house, explaining “what had happened and that we had
retreated from the scene for our safety.”
It’s true that Pullen faced a dangerous situation when he entered Figueroa’s red brick home on that
December afternoon. I don’t know whether his use of force was warranted. The family says it wasn’t,
but Pullen, a peace officer for about 15 years, maintained in his statement that Kemal had tried to take
his gun. A grand jury late last year declined to indict him or another deputy in the death.
What’s not in dispute is that a citizen’s call for help ended tragically. Now the family’s loss has been
made more tragic by a deputy’s greed.
In this litigious culture, the definition of frivolity is ever expanding. We’re almost numb to callous
money-grabs.
But we expect more from people we hold up as heroes. We revere first responders because they risk
their lives for ours, they run toward danger while we run away.
True heroes, though, possess a virtue as vital as their bravery. It is called decency.
[email protected]
The wife’s voice quivers. Her desperation is
clear. The call to 911 is her
last-ditch plea to save her
husband, and maybe even
her family.
For days, her husband,
Kemal Yazar, a 43-yearold rug importer and
loving, devoted father
to their three young
children in Seabrook,
had been acting erratically. He refused
to eat or sleep. He
talked of apocalypse. He talked of
President Barack
Obama being the antiChrist.
“My husband is disconnected from reality,”
Marlene Yazar is heard
telling the operator from
her mother’s house in
Katy, just before noon on
Dec. 30, 2012. “He’s
just talking crazy
things, like the
world is going
to end. And
he’s been like
this for two or three days
now.”
The operator pounds
her with questions and
she answers them. No, he
doesn’t have a weapon,
she says, but yes, he
could become violent if he
thinks officers are coming
to attack him.
Help is on the way, the
operator says. A paramedic is first on the scene,
but he quickly retreats
LISA FALKENBERG
Commentary
after Kemal yells and
throws a Bible at his back.
Harris County Deputy
Brady Pullen arrives at
12:17 p.m., followed by
another deputy. From
here, accounts vary, but
it’s clear there’s a struggle
between Pullen and Kemal that leads the officers
to draw Tasers and guns.
In less than 10 minutes,
the delusional man is
shot several times. He is
pronounced dead an hour
later at a Katy hospital.
The family is devas-
Photo courtesy of the Yazar family
Kemal Yazar, pictured with his children, was shot to
death in 2012 by sheriff’s deputies in Katy.
Falkenberg continues on B7
Inside
Outlook: Invest in health
of Galveston Bay. B8
Houston Chronicle | HoustonChronicle.com and chron.com | Sunday, March 30, 2014 | Section B
Houston Chronicle
xxx *
@HoustonChron
Talk of
reform
causes
worry
at HFD
Mayor adamant
that city far from
making changes
By Mike Morris
Brett Coomer photos / Houston Chronicle
After a completed restoration, the 1877 tall ship Elissa once again returned to the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Reaching a new high
on the high seas
After a $3 million makeover, the 1877 tall
ship Elissa set sail in Galveston on Saturday for the first time in more than four
years. Elissa, a three-master barque, is one
of the oldest ships sailing today. A national
historic landmark, Elissa is moored at the
Texas Seaport Museum.
Raising
the
masts
1Gallery: See
more photos
of the tall ship
Elissa at
chron.com/
elissa
Crew members prepare to sail with guests and supporters
onboard for a firsthand look at its restoration.
Cooper’s Waco yarn spins long, but legacy is longer
JOE
HOLLEY
Native
Texan
Driving through downtown
Waco the other day, I stopped
at a light on Austin Avenue at
18th Street and glanced at the
tan-brick Cooper Mansion,
stately and well-maintained
as always and reminiscent of
the city’s best-known
writer. I thought about
rereading “Sironia,
Texas,” Madison Cooper Jr.’s
award-winning novel, when I
got home.
Barely out of Waco, I thought
again, not only because the
two-volume “Sironia, Texas”
is one of the longest novels in
the English language, but also
because the Waco author’s
complex tale and his rendition
of black and white Ol’ South
dialect gets to be irritating after
a thousand pages or so. Maybe
I’ll read “War and Peace” again
someday, but I’m not sure about
“Sironia, Texas,” the saga of
my hometown during the early
years of the 20th century.
Larry King — the late Texas
Holley continues on B7
Vietnam vets get long-awaited
welcome at memorial unveiling
By Peggy Fikac
AUSTIN — The
dedication of the Vietnam
Veterans Monument
at the Texas Capitol on
Saturday highlighted the
pain, pride and solidarity
of those who served in an
unpopular conflict.
“They fought, they
bled, all too often they
died for their country.
When they came home,
there wasn’t any parades.
There weren’t any picnics.
Instead they were treated
with indifference or, even
worse, with outright
scorn,” Gov. Rick Perry
said.
Perry said the bronze
sculpture of an infantry
patrol, unveiled before a
Jay Janner /
Associated Press
Vietnam continues on B6
ALL-NEW
2014 INFINITI Q50
349
$
39 MO Lease, $599 Due at signing. Excludes TT&L. 39 payments totaling $13,611, residual $24, 671. Lessee pay $0.25/mile
for mileage over 10,000 miles/year. Offer expires 3.31.14. No security deposit required. See West Houston Infiniti for details.
We reserve the right to correct any price.
Created on Adobe Document Server 2.0
HFD continues on B2
Members of
the Memorial
High School
JROTC Minutemen Battalion from
San Antonio
participate in
the dedication of the
Vietnam Veterans Monument at the
Texas Capitol
in Austin.
throng of veterans, will
“stand as a declaration
that in Texas, we understand how blessed we are
to have warriors ready to
step forward and draw a
line between us and those
who would do harm to
our citizens.”
He noted “the many
Vietnamese nationals
Inspired by luxury,
Drive by service
Rumblings of coming
reforms in the Houston Fire
Department’s operations have
union leaders and the department’s command staff wary,
despite Mayor Annise Parker’s
insistence that these concerns
are unwarranted.
HFD’s staffing shortage has
driven up overtime costs, creating a budget crisis that has, on
some days, seen ambulances
and firetrucks pulled from service. These budget discussions
have dominated City Hall in
recent weeks, leading the mayor
and some council members to
question whether the department’s $450 million budget
could be spent more efficiently.
Parker, for instance, said
she questions whether the
city should invest in more
ambulances and fewer new
firetrucks, given that 85 percent
of HFD’s calls are medical
emergencies and that firetrucks
are more expensive to purchase,
staff and maintain. She also
wonders whether the city is
“oversaturated” in the way it
places its 103 fire stations and
deploys its 216-vehicle fleet.
The mayor is adamant, however, that she will not pursue
reforms without a planned
third-party study of HFD’s
281.581.0030
12200 Katy Freeway, Houston, TX 77079
PER MONTH
for 39 months
6 at this price.
xxx*
Houston Chronicle | HoustonChronicle.com and chron.com | Sunday, March 30, 2014 |
B7
CITY & STATE
Falkenberg:
Protecting
and serving —
with lawsuit
Falkenberg from page B1
tated. Marlene loses her
soulmate and the family’s sole provider. Her
children, ages 10, 6 and 2,
lose their daddy. Then it
got worse.
One of the deputies
who was sent to protect
the family decided to
serve them instead —
with a lawsuit.
Pullen, who, according to an investigator’s
report, suffered “superficial wounds” during the
incident, accused family
members of “negligence
and recklessness” for not
fully warning him of the
“violent threat” Kemal
posed.
He also faults the caller
for not telling the operator
that Kemal, who had no
criminal record or history
of mental illness, recently
had begun experimenting with a hallucinogen
known as “DMT” he
bought on the Internet.
His wife later told investigators that Kemal mixed
the compound, known to
be used in shamanic rituals in the Amazon, with
tea, and on at least one
occasion, marijuana.
Seeking damages
Pullen says he suffered
a broken nose, needed
surgery that required him
to miss work, and had a
concussion that affected
his memory of the events.
The deputy is seeking at
least $100,000 in damages, including medical
expenses, mental anguish,
pain and suffering and
loss of past earning capacity. The first hearing in the
case is set for April 14 in
Judge Patricia Kerrigan’s
court.
Oddly, the deputy
didn’t sue Kemal’s wife,
who placed the call, but
her mother, Carmina
Figueroa, whose name
was on the home insurance policy. Figueroa
wasn’t home at the time.
She was at work at the
meat department of a
Houston H-E-B, wrapping steaks and taking
customer orders like
she’s done for 20 years.
She says she wasn’t even
aware anyone called 911
until her son-in-law was
already dead.
Compounds tragedy
In a recent interview,
Figueroa said the lawsuit
only compounds the tragedy, which has already
taken so much from the
family, including a home
left riddled with bullet
holes and bloodstains
where she couldn’t bear to
live in anymore.
“The first thing I
thought is this man is crazy,” Figueroa said about
the deputy. “Not only is he
destroying our lives, but
he’s suing me.”
Her Houston-based
attorney, Dean Blumrosen, was so appalled by
the lawsuit he agreed to
represent Figueroa for no
fee. He has asked a court
for sanctions against attorney Mark Long of New
Braunfels for even filing
the “groundless” claim.
He recently sent Long
a letter vowing to give
up his law license if the
deputy prevails in a case
he says is offensive not
only to a grieving family,
but every law enforcement officer whose job
entails inherent risk.
Long, a former Austin
police officer, offered no
apologies.
“I’m actually offended
that people would think
that police officers don’t
have civil rights to use
civil law on their behalf.
Everyone else does,” he
said. “If this case brings
an awareness that people
need to be completely, ut-
Mayra Beltrán / Houston Chronicle
Carmina Figueroa, sitting next to daughter Marlene Yazar, is being sued by Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy
Brady Pullen in the aftermath of a shooting at her home that left her son-in-law — Yazar’s husband — dead.
terly honest with 911, and
if people become aware
that police officers have
rights just like everybody
else, I’m happy. Whatever
else people think about
me, I could care less.”
Long said he and his
client have no intentions
of trying to bilk Kemal’s
mother-in-law. He says
she should have just
forwarded his letter about
the deputy’s claim to her
insurance company rather
than waiting for a lawsuit
to be filed and then finding an outside lawyer to
fight it.
In other words, she
should have just accepted
the insult to injury. I don’t
think so.
Warned 911 operator
This lawsuit is disturbing, not just because of its
callousness, but because
of the message it sends.
Sheriff Adrian Garcia
has refused to comment
on the pending litigation.
But he and others in his
department ought to be
concerned about the chilling effect it could have on
citizens who may hesitate
to call 911 for fear of getting sued.
Besides that, much of
Pullen’s case just doesn’t
add up. His lawyer’s
theory is that Marlene
somehow “sugar-coated”
the situation to the 911
operator, playing down
her husband’s potential
for violence and omitting his drug use so that
authorities would take
him to a hospital instead
of jail.
There’s no evidence
of that. Marlene told the
911 operator her husband
could get violent. The
operator didn’t ask about
drug use. And Marlene
told me she didn’t think to
mention it because, as far
as she knew, it had been
weeks since Kemal used
DMT.
“I didn’t even know
that’s what it was,” she
told me, explaining she
thought he was more than
likely possessed.
As for her mother,
who is the one being sued,
Pullen’s attorney says
she had a duty to make
the premises safe: “She
can’t just turn a blind
eye to what’s going on in
her home and leave.” But
Figueroa says she had no
knowledge of her son-inlaw’s violent state, or the
911 call.
In Texas, our law limits
police and firefighters’
right to sue in such cases,
reasoning that they as-
sume the inherent risk of
their jobs when responding to emergency situations. The only exception
is if someone is grossly
negligent or intentionally
tries to mislead the officer
about danger.
Dangerous situation
To prove his case, Pullen needs to show that
Figueroa knew about a
danger that the deputy
wasn’t warned about. The
truth is, Pullen got plenty
of warning. Marlene
warned in the 911 call. A
call slip advised of a male
who could get violent.
Then there’s the
paramedic, Percy Spradlin, who had the Bible
thrown at his back. In
his sworn statement, the
paramedic, a field training
officer with the Cy-Fair
Volunteer Fire Department, says he requested a
deputy to respond “priority 1” to the situation and
instructed his partner to
tell dispatch they were
pulling out due “to an extremely violent patient.”
Most importantly, Spradlin states that he talked to
Pullen before he entered
the house, explaining
“what had happened and
that we had retreated
from the scene for our
Holley: Novel went from best-seller to bust
Madison
Cooper
Jr. took
11 years
to write
“Sironia,
Texas.”
The novel
won the
Houghton
Mifflin
Literary
Award, but
readers
found the
2,119-page
book
heavy going.
Holley from page B1
writer, not the talk-show
host — used to tell about
attempting to plow
through “Sironia, Texas”
while on a train years
ago. He got up to go to
the bathroom, and when
he came back the book
was gone. He said he was
relieved.
I can understand, and
yet there was more to
the Cooper story outside
the pages of his literary
behemoth.
Old South
The scion of a wealthy
wholesale grocery merchant, he was born in
Waco in 1894.
Except for his time at
the University of Texas
in Austin and in France
as an Army lieutenant
during World War I, he
lived his whole life in the
Italian baroque mansion
on Waco’s main street, a
house with 50 columns,
with balconies and
stained-glass windows
and, on the southeast
corner, an octagonal
cupola with open sides.
Cooper had a third-floor
office in the cupola, where
he not only ran the family
business but also wrote
his novel, a thinly veiled,
richly layered tale of
Waco through about 1921.
It took him 11 years.
The Coopers were
prominent Wacoans, but
few of his neighbors knew
that Madison Jr. was writing a novel (about them,
no less). A lifelong bachelor, semi-reclusive, he
went around town, usually on foot, in raggedy
shoes, baggy pants and an
Cooper
Foundation
old plaid flannel shirt that
he layered with a motheaten sweater during cold
weather. He carried his
grocery-business bills
and receipts in a shabby
leather briefcase.
Tam Lipscomb, the
chief character in “Sironia, Texas,” resembles
Cooper, without the
eccentricities. Born in
1895, Tam’s early life is
influenced by post-Civil
War changes in Sironia
(Waco), by complex and
subtle racial mores and by
the town’s gradual shift
from domination by the
“Old Order” to that of the
“New Southwest.” It’s an
evolution similar to the
change that takes place
in William Faulkner’s
Yoknapatawpha County
novels, where the old, genteel South gives way to the
grasping, crass Snopes.
(Keep in mind that Waco
in its early years was
Southern to the core.)
For Cooper, the ubiq-
uitous hackberry tree
symbolized how the new
generation replaced the
old in Sironia. The tough,
hardy hackberry crowded
out the slow-growing,
graceful and aristocratic
magnolia.
1952 best-seller
Published in 1952,
the same year as Ernest
Hemingway’s “The Old
Man and the Sea,” John
Steinbeck’s “East of Eden”
and Edna Ferber’s “Giant,” Cooper’s magnum
opus was 840,000 words
long. At 2,119 pages it was
longer than the Old and
New Testaments combined, longer than “Gone
With the Wind.”
The 58-year-old “overnight sensation” won the
Houghton Mifflin Literary Award — he bought a
Brooks Brothers suit for
the award ceremonies in
New York — and was on
the New York Times bestseller list for 11 weeks.
After a few months,
though, his novel sank
like a stone, a very heavy
stone. With its multigenerational characters,
83 in all, and its complex interwoven stories,
“Sironia, Texas” proved
to be heavy going for most
readers. He published one
other novel, “The Haunted Hacienda,” which went
nowhere.
A jogger before the term
became familiar, Cooper
circled the cinder track in
street clothes most afternoons at Waco’s Muni Stadium. On Sept. 29, 1956, he
suffered a post-jog heart
attack and died behind the
wheel of his Packard in
the stadium parking lot.
He was 62.
Foundation lifts city
Although the obituaries prominently mentioned “Sironia, Texas,”
Cooper had a longerlasting effect on his
hometown that wasn’t so
easily forgotten. In 1943,
a decade before his novel
appeared, he established
the Madison A. and
Martha Roane Cooper
Foundation in honor of
his parents. He endowed
the foundation with
$25,000 and made sure
the rest of his $3 million
estate would go to the
foundation when he died.
Its purpose, he wrote, was
“to make Waco a better
place in which to live.”
The Cooper name over
the years has become part
of the civic landscape.
Waco’s regional airport is
named for Madison Cooper. The foundation he established has helped fund
schools and endowed
libraries in low-income
neighborhoods, has
helped with desperately
needed downtown redevelopment, has provided
seed money for Baylor
and Waco ISD initiatives,
along with hundreds of
other Waco-area projects
too numerous to mention. “Some say we’re the
conscience of the community,” foundation director
Felicia Chase Goodman
told me recently.
Goodman, 41, is a Waco
native who has been foundation director for nearly
two years. I asked her
an impertinent question:
Have you read “Sironia,
Texas”?
“Uhhh, no,” she said.
“My husband went out
and bought me a very nice
first edition when I took
this job, and I tried. But
there are more important
things to do.”
[email protected]
twitter.com/holleynews
safety.”
It’s true that Pullen faced a dangerous
situation when he entered
Figueroa’s red brick
home on that December
afternoon. I don’t know
whether his use of force
was warranted. The
family says it wasn’t, but
Pullen, a peace officer for
about 15 years, maintained in his statement
that Kemal had tried to
take his gun. A grand
jury late last year declined
to indict him or another
deputy in the death.
What’s not in dispute
is that a citizen’s call for
help ended tragically.
Now the family’s loss has
been made more tragic by
a deputy’s greed.
In this litigious culture,
the definition of frivolity
is ever expanding. We’re
almost numb to callous
money-grabs.
But we expect more
from people we hold up
as heroes. We revere first
responders because they
risk their lives for ours,
they run toward danger
while we run away.
True heroes, though,
possess a virtue as vital as
their bravery. It is called
decency.
[email protected]
Osvaldo
FernandezAguilar is
accused of
killing a
pregnant
woman.
Suspect
in slaying
sought
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Police are looking for a
man charged with capital
murder in the slaying of a
pregnant woman whose
husband found her dead
at work.
Osvaldo FernandezAguilar, 23, is accused of
killing Maria Lucrecia, 27,
who suffered blunt force
trauma to the head, Houston police said.
Lucrecia’s husband
and 5-year-old son found
her dead about 5:25 p.m.
March 22 at the club where
she cleaned in the 6800
block of South Gessner.
Her husband came to
the business because he
hadn’t been able to reach
her on the phone, police
said.
Lucrecia, who was five
months pregnant, was
working when someone
came into the club and
killed her, police said.
The suspect also stole
cash from a register before
leaving the scene, according to a Houston Police
Department news release.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts
of Fernandez-Aguilar
is urged to contact the
HPD Homicide Division
at 713-308-3600 or Crime
Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS
(8477).
Sunday, March 30, 2014
e tragic by deputy’s lawsuit
ys
he
he
ng
he
ne,
Commentary
after Kemal yells and
throws a Bible at his back.
Harris County Deputy
Brady Pullen arrives at
12:17 p.m., followed by
another deputy. From
here, accounts vary, but
it’s clear there’s a struggle
between Pullen and Kemal that leads the officers
to draw Tasers and guns.
In less than 10 minutes,
the delusional man is
shot several times. He is
pronounced dead an hour
later at a Katy hospital.
The family is devas-
Falkenberg continues on B7
Photo courtesy of the Yazar family
Photo
courtesy of the Yazar family
Kemal Yazar, pictured with this children, wa shot to death in
Kemal
Yazar, pictured with his children, was shot to
2012 by sheriff’s deputies in Katy.
death in 2012 by sheriff’s deputies in Katy.
Family’s loss made more
Inside lawsuit
tragic by deputy’s
Outlook: Invest in health
Byof
Lisa
Falkenberg
Galveston
Bay. B8
The wife’s voice
quivers. Her desperation is clear.
The call to 911@HoustonChron
is her last-ditch plea to save her
Houston Chronicle
xxx *
husband, and maybe even her family.
For days, her husband, Kemal Yazar, a 43-year-old rug importer and loving, devoted father to their
three young children in Seabrook, had been acting erratically. He refused to eat or sleep. He talked of
apocalypse. He talked of President Barack Obama being the anti-Christ.
“My husband is disconnected from reality, “ Marlene Yazar is heard telling the operator from her
mother’s house in Katy, just before noon on Dec. 30, 2012. “He’s just talking crazy things, like the
world is going to end. And he’s been like this for two or three days now.”
The operator pounds her with questions and she answers them. No, he doesn’t have a weapon, she
says, but yes, he could become violent if he thinks officers are coming to attack him.
Help is on the way, the operator says. A paramedic is first on the scene, but he quickly retreats after
Kemal yells and throws a Bible at his back.
Harris County Deputy Brady Pullen arrives at 12:17 p.m., followed by another deputy. From here,
accounts vary, but it’s clear there’s a struggle between Pullen and Kemal that leads the officers to draw
Tasers and guns.
In less than 10 minutes, the delusional man is shot several times. He is pronounced dead an hour
later at a Katy hospital.
The family is devastated. Marlene loses her soulmate and the family’s sole provider. Her children,
ages 10, 6 and 2, lose their daddy. Then it got worse.
One of the deputies who was sent to protect the family decided to serve them instead - with a lawsuit.
Pullen, who, according to an investigator’s report, suffered “superficial wounds” during the
incident, accused family members of “negligence and recklessness” for not fully warning him of the
“violent threat” Kemal posed.
He also faults the caller for not telling the operator that Kemal, who had no criminal record or
history of mental illness, recently had begun experimenting with a hallucinogen known as “DMT” he
bought on the Internet. His wife later told investigators that Kemal mixed the compound, known to be
used in shamanic rituals in the Amazon, with tea, and on at least one occasion, marijuana.
0, 2014 | Section B
Talk of
reform
causes
worry
at HFD
Mayor adamant
that city far from
making changes
By Mike Morris
Seeking damages
Rumblings of coming
Pullen says he suffered a broken nose, needed surgery that required him to miss work, and had a
reforms in the Houston Fire
concussion that affected his memory of the events.
The deputy
is seeking
at least $100,000 in damages,
Department’s
operations
have
including medical expenses, mental anguish, pain
and
suffering
anddepartloss of past earning capacity. The
union
leaders
and the
Brett Coomer photos / Houston Chronicle
ment’s command staff wary,
xxx*
Houston Chronicle | HoustonChronicle.com and chron.com | Sunday, March 30, 2014 |
B7
Y & STATE
lkenberg:
otecting
d serving —
th lawsuit
from page B1
ene loses her
nd the famovider. Her
ges 10, 6 and 2,
addy. Then it
he deputies
ent to protect
decided to
instead —
suit.
who, accordvestigator’s
ered “superfis” during the
ccused family
f “negligence
ssness” for not
ng him of the
reat” Kemal
Carmina
Figueroa,
sitting next
to daughter
Marlene Yazar,
is being sued
by Harris
County
Sheriff’s
Deputy Brady
Pullen in the
aftermath of
a shooting at
her home that
left her son-inlaw - Yazar’s
husband - dead.
was on the home insurance policy. Figueroa
wasn’t home at the time.
She was at work at the
meat department of a
Houston H-E-B, wrapping steaks and taking
customer orders like
she’s done for 20 years.
She says she wasn’t even
aware anyone called 911
until her son-in-law was
already dead.
Compounds tragedy
In a recent interview,
Figueroa said the lawsuit
only compounds the tragedy, which has already
taken so much from the
family, including a home
left riddled with bullet
holes and bloodstains
where she couldn’t bear to
live in anymore.
“The first thing I
thought is this man is crazy,” Figueroa said about
the deputy. “Not only is he
destroying our lives, but
he’s suing me.”
Her Houston-based
attorney, Dean Blumrosen, was so appalled by
the lawsuit he agreed to
represent Figueroa for no
fee. He has asked a court
for sanctions against attorney Mark Long of New
Braunfels for even filing
the “groundless” claim.
He recently sent Long
a letter vowing to give
up his law license if the
deputy prevails in a case
he says is offensive not
only to a grieving family,
but every law enforcement officer whose job
entails inherent risk.
Long, a former Austin
police officer, offered no
apologies.
“I’m actually offended
that people would think
that police officers don’t
have civil rights to use
civil law on their behalf.
Everyone else does,” he
said. “If this case brings
an awareness that people
need to be completely, ut-
Mayra Beltrán /
Houston Chronicle
Mayra Beltrán / Houston Chronicle
Carmina Figueroa, sitting next to daughter Marlene Yazar, is being sued by Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy
Brady Pullen in the aftermath of a shooting at her home that left her son-in-law — Yazar’s husband — dead.
first hearing in the
casewithis911,set
April
14 in Judge
Patricia
court.
safety.”
theory
is that Marlene
sume the inherent
risk of Kerrigan’s
terly honest
and for
It’s true that Pulsomehow “sugar-coated”
their jobs when respondif people become aware
len faced
a dangerous
situation to thewife,
911
ing
to emergency
situa- the
that policedidn’t
officers havesuethe
Oddly, the deputy
Kemal’s
who
placed
call,
but
her mother, Carmina Figueroa,
situation when he entered
operator, playing down
tions. The only exception
aults the caller
rights just like everybody
Figueroa’s
red
brick
her
husband’s
potential
is
if
someone
is
grossly
ng the operatorwhose name was
else,
I’m
happy.
Whatever
on the home insurance
policy.
Figueroa wasn’t
home at the time. She was at work at
home on that December
for violence and omitnegligent or intentionally
, who had no
else people think about
ting his drug
use so that wrapping
tries to mislead the
officer
cord or historythe meat department
me, I couldof
carea
less.”
afternoon.
I don’t know customer orders like she’s done
Houston
H-E-B,
steaks
and
taking
authorities would take
about danger.
lness, recently
Long said he and his
whether his use of force
him to a hospital instead
experimentclient have no intentions
was warranted. The
wasn’t
even aware anyone
called 911
her
of jail.
Dangerous situation
hallucinogen for 20 years. Sheofsays
trying to she
bilk Kemal’s
familyuntil
says it wasn’t,
but son-in-law was already dead.
DMT” he
the Internet.
ter told invesat Kemal mixed
und, known to
shamanic rituAmazon, with
at least one
marijuana.
mother-in-law. He says
she should have just
forwarded his letter about
the deputy’s claim to her
insurance company rather
than waiting for a lawsuit
to be filed and then finding an outside lawyer to
fight it.
In other words, she
should have just accepted
the insult to injury. I don’t
think so.
There’s no evidence
of that. Marlene told the
911 operator her husband
could get violent. The
operator didn’t ask about
drug use. And Marlene
told me she didn’t think to
mention it because, as far
as she knew, it had been
weeks since Kemal used
DMT.
“I didn’t even know
that’s what it was,” she
told me, explaining she
thought he was more than
likely possessed.
As for her mother,
who is the one being sued,
Pullen’s attorney says
she had a duty to make
the premises safe: “She
can’t just turn a blind
eye to what’s going on in
her home and leave.” But
Figueroa says she had no
knowledge of her son-inlaw’s violent state, or the
911 call.
In Texas, our law limits
police and firefighters’
right to sue in such cases,
reasoning that they as-
To prove his case, Pullen needs to show that
Figueroa knew about a
danger that the deputy
wasn’t warned about. The
truth is, Pullen got plenty
of warning. Marlene
warned in the 911 call. A
call slip advised of a male
who could get violent.
Then there’s the
paramedic, Percy Spradlin, who had the Bible
thrown at his back. In
his sworn statement, the
paramedic, a field training
officer with the Cy-Fair
Volunteer Fire Department, says he requested a
deputy to respond “priority 1” to the situation and
instructed his partner to
tell dispatch they were
pulling out due “to an extremely violent patient.”
Most importantly, Spradlin states that he talked to
Pullen before he entered
the house, explaining
“what had happened and
that we had retreated
from the scene for our
Pullen, a peace officer for
about 15 years, maintained in his statement
that Kemal had tried to
take his gun. A grand
jury late last year declined
to indict him or another
deputy in the death.
What’s not in dispute
is that a citizen’s call for
help ended tragically.
Now the family’s loss has
been made more tragic by
a deputy’s greed.
In this litigious culture,
the definition of frivolity
is ever expanding. We’re
almost numb to callous
money-grabs.
But we expect more
from people we hold up
as heroes. We revere first
responders because they
risk their lives for ours,
they run toward danger
while we run away.
True heroes, though,
possess a virtue as vital as
their bravery. It is called
decency.
Texas.”
The novel
won the
Houghton
Mifflin
Literary
Award, but
readers
found the
2,119-page
book
heavy going.
his parents. He endowed
the foundation with
$25,000 and made sure
the rest of his $3 million
estate would go to the
foundation when he died.
Its purpose, he wrote, was
“to make Waco a better
place in which to live.”
The Cooper name over
the years has become part
of the civic landscape.
Waco’s regional airport is
named for Madison Cooper. The foundation he established has helped fund
schools and endowed
libraries in low-income
neighborhoods, has
helped with desperately
needed downtown redevelopment, has provided
seed money for Baylor
and Waco ISD initiatives,
along with hundreds of
other Waco-area projects
too numerous to mention. “Some say we’re the
conscience of the community,” foundation director
Felicia Chase Goodman
told me recently.
Goodman, 41, is a Waco
native who has been foundation director for nearly
two years. I asked her
an impertinent question:
Have you read “Sironia,
Texas”?
“Uhhh, no,” she said.
“My husband went out
and bought me a very nice
first edition when I took
this job, and I tried. But
there are more important
things to do.”
in slaying
Compounds tragedy
In a recent interview, Figueroa said the lawsuit only compounds the tragedy, which has already
taken so much from the family, including a home left riddled with bullet holes and bloodstains where
she couldn’t bear to live in anymore.
amages
ays he suffered
“The first thing I thought is this man is crazy, “ Figueroa said about the deputy. “Not only is he
ose, needed
at required him
destroying our lives,
but he’s suing me.”
rk, and had a
Warned 911 operator
n that affected
This lawsuit is disturbHer
Houston-based
attorney,
Dean Blumrosen, was so appalled by the lawsuit he agreed to
y of the events.
ing, not just because
of its
y is seeking at
callousness, but because
for no
fee. He has asked a court for sanctions against attorney Mark Long of New
000 in dam- represent Figueroa
of the message
it sends.
ding medical
Sheriff Adrian Garcia
mental anguish,Braunfels for even
has refused
to comment
filing
the “groundless” claim. He recently sent Long a letter vowing to give up his
uffering and
on the pending litigation.
earning capac-law license if theBut
he and othersprevails
in his
deputy
in a case he says is offensive not only to a grieving family, but every
t hearing in the
department ought to be
or April 14 in law enforcementconcerned
aboutwhose
the chillofficer
job
entails inherent risk.
cia Kerrigan’s
ing effect it could have on
citizens who may hesitate
Long, a formerto call
Austin
police officer, offered no apologies.
he deputy
911 for fear of getKemal’s wife,
ting sued.
“I’m
actually
offended
that
d the call, but
Besides that, much of people would think that police officers don’t have civil rights to use civil
r, Carmina
Pullen’s case just doesn’t
else does, “ he said. “If this case
brings an awareness that people need to
whose name law on their behalf.
add up.Everyone
His lawyer’s
[email protected]
be completely, utterly honest with 911, and if people become aware that police officers have rights just
everybody else, I’m happy. Whatever else people think about Osvaldo
me, I could care less.”
Fernandezlley: like
Novel
went from best-seller to bust
Aguilar is
Long said he and his client have no intentions of trying to bilk Kemal’s
mother-in-law. He says she
accused of
easily forgotten. In 1943,
m page B1
Madison
killing a
should have just forwarded his letter about
the
deputy’s claim to her
insurance company rather than
a decade before his novel
Cooper
pregnant
appeared, he established
the talk-show
Jr. took
woman.
waiting
for
a
lawsuit
to
be
filed
and
then
finding
an
outside
lawyer
to
fight it.
the Madison A. and
d to tell about
11 years
Martha Roane Cooper
to plow
to write
In other words, she should have just
accepted
thein honor
insult
to
injury. I don’t think so.
Foundation
of
ironia, Texas”
“Sironia,
Suspect
train years
up to go to
om, and when
ck the book
He said he was
Warned 911 operator
sought
This lawsuit is disturbing, not just because of its callousness, but because of the message it sends.
derstand, and
as more to
Sheriff Adrian Garcia has refused to comment on the pending
litigation. But he and others in his
story outside
Police are looking for a
f his literary
charged with capital
department ought to be concerned about the chilling effect itman
could
have
murder in the slaying
of a on citizens who may hesitate to
pregnant woman whose
call 911 for fear of getting sued.
husband found her dead
n of a wealthy
at work.
Besides that, much of Pullen’s case just doesn’t add up. HisOsvaldo
lawyer’s
grocery merFernandez- theory is that Marlene somehow
was born in
Aguilar, 23, is accused of
94.
killing Maria
27,
“sugar-coated”
the situation toAfter
thea few
911
operator, playing down
herLucrecia,
husband’s
potential for violence and
or his time at
months,
who suffered blunt force
old plaid flannel shirt that uitous hackberry tree
symbolized
how the
new authorities
sity of Texas omitting
though, his novel sank
trauma
to the head, Houshe layered withhis
a mothdrug
use
so
that
would
take
him
to
a
hospital
instead
of
jail.
generation replaced the
nd in France
like a stone, a very heavy
ton police said.
eaten sweater during cold
old in Sironia. The tough,
y lieutenant
stone. With its multiLucrecia’s husband
weather. He carried his
There’s no evidence
of that. Marlene told the 911 operator and
her
husband could get violent. The operator
hardy hackberry crowded generational characters,
rld War I, he
5-year-old son found
grocery-business bills
out the slow-growing,
hole life in the
83 in all, and its comher dead about 5:25 p.m.
and receipts in a shabby
didn’t
ask
about
drug
use.
And
Marlene
told
me
she
didn’t
think
mention
it because, as far as she
graceful and aristocratic
oque mansion
plex interwoven stories,
March 22 at to
the club
where
leather briefcase.
magnolia.
main street, a
“Sironia, Texas” proved
she cleaned in the 6800
Tam Lipscomb, the
it had
used
50 columns, knew,
be heavy going
for mostDMT.
block of South Gessner.
chief character
in “Siro-been weeks since toKemal
1952 best-seller
nies and
readers. He published one
Her husband came to
nia, Texas,” resembles
“I didn’t
even know
what
it was,
“ she told me, explaining
shehethought he was more than likely
Publishedthat’s
in 1952,
ss windows
other novel,
“The Hauntthe business because
Cooper,
without the
the same year as Ernest
southeast
ed Hacienda,” which went
hadn’t been able to reach
eccentricities. Born in
Hemingway’s “The Old
octagonal
nowhere.
her on the phone, police
1895, Tam’s early life is
possessed.
Man and the Sea,” John
h open sides.
A jogger before the term
said.
influenced by post-Civil
Steinbeck’s who
“East of Eden”
d a third-floor
became
familiar,
Cooper sued, Pullen’s attorney
Lucrecia, whosays
was five she had a duty to make the
War
changes
in
Sironia
As
for
her
mother,
is
the
one
being
and Edna Ferber’s “Gie cupola, where (Waco), by complex and
circled the cinder track in
months pregnant, was
ran the family subtle racial mores and by ant,” Cooper’s magnum
street clothes most afterworking when someone
premises
safe: “She
can’t just turn
a blind eye to what’s going
on in her home and leave.” But Figueroa
ut also wrote
noons at Waco’s Muni Stacame into the club and
the town’s gradual shift
opus was 840,000 words
thinly veiled,
dium. On Sept. 29, 1956, he
killed her, police said.
from domination by the
long. At 2,119 pages it was
says
she
had
no
knowledge
of
her
son-in-law’s
violent
state,
or
thealso
911stolecall.
red tale of
suffered a post-jog heart
The suspect
“Old Order” to that of the
longer than the Old and
ugh about 1921.
attack and died behind the
cash from a register before
“New Southwest.” It’s an
New Testaments comIn Texas,
our law
limits
police
firefighters’
right to sue
inthesuch
cases, reasoning that they
11 years.
wheeland
of his Packard
in
leaving
scene, accordevolution
similar to the
bined, longer
than “Gone
pers were
the stadium parking lot.
ing to a Houston Police
change that takes place
With the Wind.”
the inherent
risk “overof their
jobs
when responding to emergency
situations. The only exception is
Wacoans, but assume
He was
62.
Department news release.
in William Faulkner’s
The 58-year-old
neighbors knew Yoknapatawpha County
Anyone with informanight sensation” won the
on Jr. was writ-if someone
Foundation
lifts city
tion on the
whereabouts
novels, where the old,
Houghton negligent
Mifflin Literisgengrossly
or
intentionally
tries to mislead
the
officer about danger.
(about them,
Although the obituarof Fernandez-Aguilar
teel South gives way to the ary Award — he bought a
lifelong bachies prominently menis urged to contact the
grasping,
crass Snopes. situation
Brooks Brothers suit for
Dangerous
reclusive, he
tioned “Sironia, Texas,”
HPD Homicide Division
(Keep in mind that Waco
the award ceremonies in
nd town, usuCooper had a longerat 713-308-3600 or Crime
in
its early
years was
New YorkPullen
— and was onneeds
To
prove
his
case,
to
show
that
Figueroa
knew
about a danger that the deputy wasn’t
, in raggedy
Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS
Southern to the core.)
the New York Times best- lasting effect on his
[email protected]
gy pants and an
hometown that wasn’t so
(8477).
For Cooper, the ubiqseller list for 11 weeks.
twitter.com/holleynews
warned about. The truth is, Pullen got plenty of warning. Marlene
warned in the 911 call. A call slip
advised of a male who could get violent.
Then there’s the paramedic, Percy Spradlin, who had the Bible thrown at his back. In his sworn
Cooper
Foundation
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
statement, the paramedic, a field training officer with the Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department, says he
requested a deputy to respond “priority 1” to the situation and instructed his partner to tell dispatch
they were pulling out due “to an extremely violent patient.” Most importantly, Spradlin states that
he talked to Pullen before he entered the house, explaining “what had happened and that we had
retreated from the scene for our safety.”
It’s true that Pullen faced a dangerous situation when he entered Figueroa’s red brick home on that
December afternoon. I don’t know whether his use of force was warranted. The family says it wasn’t,
but Pullen, a peace officer for about 15 years, maintained in his statement that Kemal had tried to take
his gun. A grand jury late last year declined to indict him or another deputy in the death.
What’s not in dispute is that a citizen’s call for help ended tragically. Now the family’s loss has been
made more tragic by a deputy’s greed.
In this litigious culture, the definition of frivolity is ever expanding. We’re almost numb to callous
money-grabs.
But we expect more from people we hold up as heroes. We revere first responders because they risk
their lives for ours, they run toward danger while we run away.
True heroes, though, possess a virtue as vital as their bravery. It is called decency.
[email protected]
Sponsor Documents
Recommended
No recommend documents