Two Dallas Police Officers Indicted in August 2016 Death Of Unarmed Man

A Dallas County grand jury indicted two Dallas Police Department officers Thursday for their role in the death of Tony Timpa. Both are charged with misdemeanor deadly conduct.

On Aug. 10, 2016, Timpa panicked in the parking lot of the New Fine Arts adult video store at 1720 Mockingbird Lane. He called 911 and told the operator that he feared for his safety, had anxiety and schizophrenia, had been off of his medication and was unarmed, according to a federal lawsuit filed by his family in November 2016 against the city and the officers.

Before the arrival of Dallas police Sgt. Kevin Mansell and Officer Danny Vasquez, the officers indicted Thursday, a New Fine Arts security guard handcuffed Timpa in an attempt to keep him from running into traffic.

When Mansell, Vasquez and three other DPD officers reached the store at about 10:30 p.m., they pinned Timpa to the ground. According to the lawsuit, one of the officers had his knee in Timpa's back for almost 14 minutes. As Timpa was on the ground, he began to have trouble breathing and eventually became unresponsive, according to the lawsuit.

Timpa, who was 32, died in an ambulance at the scene after several officers attempted to revive him with CPR. The Dallas County medical examiner ruled the death a homicide, finding that Timpa died of "sudden cardiac arrest, secondarily caused by the toxic effects of cocaine and stress associated with physical restraint," according to a DPD statement.

According to DPD, more indictments associated with Timpa's death could come down in the near future, but were not made public as of Friday morning.

DPD has placed Mansell and Vasquez on administrative leave pending the outcome of their cases, the department said Thursday. If convicted for their roles in Timpa's death, each would face a fine of up to $4,000 and up to one year in jail.

Mansell and Vasquez are the fourth and fifth Dallas County police officers indicted by Dallas County grand juries in 2017 and the second and third this week. On Wednesday, Mesquite police officer Derick Wiley was indicted on charges of aggravated assault by a public servant for shooting Lyndo Jones during an incident that began as Jones was trying to disable the alarm on his pickup truck.