Supreme Court revives lawsuit over fatal Texas police shooting during traffic stop for unpaid tolls

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A unanimous Supreme Court on Thursday revived a civil rights lawsuit against a Texas police officer who shot a man to death during a traffic stop over unpaid tolls.

The justices ordered the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to take a new look at the case of Ashtian Barnes, who died in his rental car in April 2016 on the shoulder of the Sam Houston Tollway in Houston.

Barnes was shot by Officer Roberto Felix Jr., who jumped on the sill of the driver’s door of Barnes’ car as it began to pull away from the stop. Felix fired twice in two seconds because he “reasonably feared for his life,” his lawyers wrote in their Supreme Court brief.

Lower courts had dismissed the excessive force lawsuit filed against Felix by Barnes’ mother, Janice Hughes. The issue before the justices was whether those lower courts used the right standard, evaluating Felix’s actions only at the “moment of the threat” that caused him to shoot Barnes.

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Updated 10:41 AM EDT, May 15, 2025


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