After Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Pardons Ex-Army Sergeant Who Fatally Shot A Black Lives Matter Protester, Debate Over His Motives Rages

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) issued a pardon to Daniel Perry, the former United States Army sergeant who had fatally shot an armed demonstrator during a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020.

He was held in state prison on a 25-year sentence since being convicted of murdering Garrett Foster, an Air Force veteran who lawfully carried an AK-47 while marching in a Black Lives Matter protest, by an Austin jury back in April 2023.

The former U.S. Army sergeant was working as a ride-share driver back in July 2020 when he turned his car onto a street in Austin filled with demonstrators and shot Foster before he drove off.

Perry served in the Army for over a decade.  During the time of the shooting, he had been stationed at Fort Cavazos, then Fort Hood, which is about 70 miles north of Austin.

According to court records released in April, Perry had been sending racist messages about protesters and sharing white supremacist memes eight weeks before Foster’s murder. 

“It is official: I am a racist because I do not agree with people acting like animals at the zoo. I was on the side of the [protesters] until they started with the looting and the violence,” he mentioned in one publicly posted message. 

On the same day, Perry also compared the Black Lives Matter movement to “a zoo full of monkeys that are freaking out flinging their s—,” according to the filings.

During his trial, prosecutors claimed that Perry could have driven away without shooting, and witnesses testified that they did not see the Black Lives Matter protester raise his gun. The sergeant’s defense attorneys asserted that Garett raised the rifle and that Perry did not have any other choice but to shoot.

Perry did not take the witness stand, and jurors deliberated for two days before they found him guilty.

Abbott announced the pardon on May 16, minutes after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles revealed that it unanimously recommended that Perry be pardoned and have his firearms rights reinstated. 

The Republican Texas governor already ordered the board to review the ex-sergeant’s case and said earlier that he would sign a pardon if he were to be recommended. 

The board, which the governor appoints, revealed its unanimous recommendation in a message posted on the agency website, and Abbott’s pardon quickly followed.

Abbott’s demand to review Perry’s case came after pressure from the conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson, who on national television, urged the governor to intervene after Perry had been convicted. 

Carlson had dedicated a segment to personally challenge the governor to appear on his political talk show Tucker Carlson Tonight and talk about pardoning Perry – labeling the case as a “legal atrocity” which he blamed on progressive prosecutors. 

Abbott announced he was directing a review of the ex-sergeant’s conviction the following day.

The governor lauded the board’s recommendation to pardon Perry.

“Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive district attorney,” Abbott stated.

Foster’s girlfriend, Whitney Mitchell, was with him when he was killed. 

She called the pardon an act of “lawlessness.”

“With this pardon, the governor has desecrated the life of a murdered Texan and U.S. Air Force veteran and impugned that jury’s just verdict,” Mitchell declared. “He has declared that Texans who hold political views that are different from his and different from those in power can be killed in this state with impunity,” Mitchell said.

In recent years, Abbott has tried hard to inject himself into the national debate. Last year, he began busing migrants to Democratic-run cities across the country. He has also so sent the Texas National Guard to the border to arrest those crossing illegally.