Danny Ray Thomas

Danny Ray Thomas, 34, an unarmed Black man whose family said he was struggling psychologically, was shot once in the chest and killed by Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Cameron Brewer on March 22, 2018, in Houston's Greenspoint area. Dashcam and bystander video showed Thomas, whose pants were around his ankles, walking toward Brewer as the deputy backed away with his gun aimed at Thomas's chest, shouting at him to get down. Brewer, who was carrying a Taser, fired a single shot. The Sheriff's Office fired Brewer for violating its use-of-force policy, and in October 2018 a Harris County grand jury indicted him on aggravated assault by a public servant, the first such indictment of a peace officer for an on-duty fatal shooting in Harris County in fifteen years. A jury acquitted him in August 2019. No one has ever been convicted in Thomas's death.

Houston, TX · Harris County

• 2018: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The encounter and the shooting, per Houston Police Department investigators, the Harris County Sheriff's Office's released dashcam video, bystander recordings, and trial coverage by the Houston Chronicle and ABC13.
• Brewer stopped his patrol car on Greens Road at Imperial Valley after seeing what appeared to be a fight; Thomas had been involved in an altercation with a driver.
• Video shows Thomas unarmed, with his pants down around his ankles, walking toward Brewer as the deputy retreated with his gun pointed at Thomas's chest, yelling for him to get down several times; Brewer fired once, striking Thomas in the chest.
• Investigators said Brewer was carrying a Taser but chose to use his firearm; Brewer's attorney said the deputy recognized that Thomas appeared to be high on PCP and knew from past encounters that a Taser would not stop someone in that state.
• Sheriff Ed Gonzalez fired Brewer in April 2018 after an internal investigation found he had not followed the Sheriff's Office use-of-force policy.
• A Harris County grand jury indicted Brewer on October 25, 2018, on a first-degree felony charge of aggravated assault by a public servant, which carried a penalty of up to life in prison; it was the first time in fifteen years that Harris County prosecutors secured an indictment of a peace officer for an on-duty fatal shooting.
• Brewer, who is also Black, went on trial in August 2019; a jury found him not guilty on August 9, 2019, and the District Attorney's Office said it respected the verdict.
• In 2020, the Sheriff's Civil Service Commission voted to reinstate Brewer; the Sheriff's Office said it stood behind its decision to terminate him, and it was unclear whether or when he would return to work.

• Whether Brewer reasonably believed Thomas posed a lethal threat, as the defense argued, or used deadly force in violation of both the law and his department's policy, as the Sheriff's Office's own termination finding suggested, was resolved at trial only by a not-guilty verdict, and the jury's reasoning has not been made public.
• Whether Thomas was in fact intoxicated on PCP at the time, as Brewer's attorney stated, and how that bore on the use of force, was a defense claim and is not confirmed in the sources reviewed for this summary.
• Whether Brewer ever returned to work for the Sheriff's Office after the Civil Service Commission's reinstatement vote has not been confirmed in the sources reviewed.

• Houston Chronicle — “Former deputy found not guilty in shooting of Danny Ray Thomas”
• ABC13 (KTRK) — “Jury acquits ex-Harris County deputy in killing of unarmed man”
• Houston Public Media — “Grand Jury Indicts Former Sheriff's Deputy for Death of Danny Ray Thomas”
• Houston Chronicle — “Commission votes to reinstate Harris County deputy who shot, killed Danny Ray Thomas”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs