Michael Dean

Michael Dean, 32, a father of three, was shot in the head and killed by Temple, Texas Police Officer Carmen DeCruz during a traffic stop on December 2, 2019, after DeCruz pursued him for speeding. According to the arrest affidavit, Dean eventually stopped his car; DeCruz approached with his gun drawn and, reaching into the vehicle to grab the keys from the ignition, pulled the trigger. Dean was unarmed. DeCruz was charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. After a roughly two-week trial in February 2023, a Bell County jury deliberated about two hours before acquitting DeCruz of both charges; his attorney argued Dean, who was legally intoxicated at .2 blood alcohol content, “caused his own death” by resisting and touching the gun. Dean's family disputes that account. No one has ever been convicted in Dean's death.

Temple, TX · Bell County

• 2019: 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 traffic stop, the pursuit, and the shooting, per the arrest affidavit and body camera footage played at DeCruz's 2023 trial.
• DeCruz reached into Dean's vehicle from the passenger side with his gun drawn and his finger on the trigger to remove the keys from the ignition, and fired while doing so, per the arrest affidavit.
• Dean's blood alcohol content was .2 — double the legal limit — at the time of the stop, per Dallas County Medical Examiner testimony at trial.
• A Temple Police commander testified at trial that reaching into a vehicle with a weapon drawn is not a technique the department recommends, because it endangers both the officer and the person inside.
• DeCruz did not testify in his own defense; the defense rested its case after the prosecution's presentation.
• A Bell County jury acquitted DeCruz of both second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide on February 7, 2023, after roughly two hours of deliberation.
• Dean's family filed a $10 million federal civil rights lawsuit against DeCruz and the City of Temple in November 2021, alleging inadequate training and a pattern of excessive force against Black residents; the city moved to dismiss that suit in September 2024.
• The city has withheld release of DeCruz's body camera footage, citing ongoing civil litigation and Texas Occupations Code provisions on peace officer records.

• Whether Dean in fact touched or grabbed DeCruz's weapon, as the defense argued caused the gun to discharge, or whether DeCruz's own act of reaching in with his finger on the trigger was the cause, was the central dispute at trial and was resolved only by the jury's acquittal, not by any independent finding of fact.
• The full contents of DeCruz's body camera footage, which the defense itself called “the most important part of the evidence” during closing arguments, have never been publicly released.
• The specific reasoning behind the jury's roughly two-hour deliberation on two separate charges is not public, as with all jury deliberations.

• KWTX — “'We can begin moving forward together': City of Temple reacts to not guilty verdict in trial of ex-cop charged in shooting death of Michael Dean”
• 6 News (KCEN) — “Former Temple officer found not guilty in 2019 shooting death”
• KWTX — “City of Temple files motion to dismiss civil lawsuit in Michael Dean case”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs