Melissa Hennings
Audio By Carbonatix
The undecided fate of convicted murderer Daniel Perry continues to twist and turn its way towards sentencing. Newly unsealed records on Thursday placed increased focus on the 35-year-old’s views towards Black Lives Matter protestors and minority groups.
On Friday, April 7, a Travis County jury found Perry guilty of murdering 28-year-old Garrett Foster in Austin. During a 2020 protest against police brutality following the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota, Perry, who was driving for Uber, directed his car near a group of protesters and shot Foster five times.
Foster, an Air Force veteran, had approached the vehicle carrying an AK-47, legally, and was standing near the driver’s side door out of which Perry shot. Perry was not shot at, nor injured in the incident. He drove away from the scene before reporting the shooting to police later, claiming he did so in self-defense.
Foster, a Plano native and Plano East Senior High graduate, and his fiancee, Whitney Mitchell, met while living in North Texas before moving to Austin.
Less than 24 hours after the guilty verdict was announced, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted “I am working as swiftly as Texas law allows regarding the pardon of Sgt. Perry.” In the tweet, he included a note citing Texas’ “Stand Your Ground” law explaining his stance.
Predictably, the discourse on social media sites and cable news involving Abbott’s pardon intentions has split pretty cleanly along the same sort of ideological line that split those who opposed and supported the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse. In 2020, Rittenhouse shot three people, killing two of them, during protests and civil unrest in Wisconsin.
Collin Allred, U.S. Congressman from Dallas, condemned Abbott’s possible pardon, tweeting “This is not justice. This pardon undermines our justice system, the rule of law and law enforcement. It’s beyond reckless. It will only embolden vigilantes and armed confrontations.”
This is not justice. This pardon undermines our justice system, the rule of law and law enforcement. It’s beyond reckless. It will only embolden vigilantes and armed confrontations. https://t.co/H6LHaKxFjK
— Colin Allred (@ColinAllredTX) April 11, 2023
On Tuesday, April 11, Perry’s attorney filed a motion for a new trial. KXAN in Austin reported that “The defense team stated in the documents it attempted to introduce evidence to show Foster’s motive, states of mind and intent. The documents said there were other incidents in which Foster was the first aggressor and would ‘unlawfully’ scare others who he believed might interfere with his objective to ‘take the streets.'”
According to a report by the Houston Chronicle, Thursday’s unsealing of records by a Travis County judge reveals many social media comments, memes and text messages painting Perry as both a racist and a hardline opponent of BLM protesters well before the July 2020 night he shot Foster. The contents of the newly unsealed record were not viewed by jurors in the trial who found him guilty.
The Austin American-Statesman reported that one of the social media posts from June 2020 allegedly stated “It is official I am a racist because I do not agree with people acting like animals at the zoo.” On the same day, Perry also allegedly posted “now it is my turn to get banned (from Facebook) by comparing the black lives matter movement to a zoo full of monkeys that are freaking out flinging their s-t.”
According to the Austin American-Statesman report, other items in the records included “messages such as ‘Black Lives Matter is racist to white people…It is official I am racist because I do not agree with people acting like monkeys,’ Perry wrote.”
In an interview with the Dallas Morning News, Steve Foster, Garrett’s father, who says he moved away from Texas to avoid “painful memories related to the shooting,” also noted he was troubled to hear that Abbott was looking into a pardon for Perry. Abbott has not offered public comment on Thursday’s unsealed record development.
