Officer cleared in fatal Beaumont shooting

Beaumont police officers work the scene of an officer-involved shooting at 23rd and College streets. Beaumont police officers work the scene of an officer-involved shooting at 23rd and College streets. Photo: The Enteprise Photo: The Enteprise Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Officer cleared in fatal Beaumont shooting 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

A Beaumont police officer who killed a 22-year-old suspect in March by shooting him one time in the mouth from a "distant" range has been cleared of wrongdoing, authorities said, though details of the shooting remain sparse.

A Jefferson County grand jury declined to charge the officer, a BPD spokesman said. The department has closed its investigation into the shooting, a department attorney wrote last week in a letter to the attorney general.

"The case is now a closed criminal investigation which has not resulted in conviction or deferred adjudication," says the letter, which seeks to block The Enterprise from acquiring the dashboard camera video, the full 911 call recording and other records of the incident.

Herbert Edgar Ballance IV was killed March 5 when police responded to a trailer park near the corner of South 23rd and College streets after a caller said a car-theft suspect was in the area.

Department spokesman Sgt. Cody Guedry said in March the caller told authorities the suspect was armed. When officers arrived, Ballance exited his home and confronted officers, Guedry said.

Ballance, a 5-foot, 5-inch, 141-pound man, was shot one time, according to the full autopsy report.

The bullet entered the right side of Ballance's mouth and exited his scalp 6 inches below the top of his head, according to the report.

The report does not specify how far away the officer was when the shot was fired other than to classify the estimated range as "distant."

A toxicology screening showed the presence of methamphetamine in Ballance's liver tissue, the medical examiner wrote.

The full toxicology report was requested from Judge Ransom "Duce" Jones' office last week and again on Tuesday but has not been released.

Ballance pleaded guilty on April 30, 2015, to possession of less than one gram of methamphetamine. Ballance received two years of probation, a $500 fine and 120 hours of community service and was ordered by the court to obtain a GED, the equivalency of a high-school diploma, according to court records.

Related to the shooting, the Beaumont Police Department missed a deadline to report data from the shooting to the Texas attorney general, a relatively new requirement imposed on departments in the last legislative session.

The law gives departments 30 days to submit the report to the attorney general's office, which has 10 days to post it in online.

The AG's office has not received a report from the March 5 shooting, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Guedry said BPD has submitted the report to the attorney general's office.

Departments that maintain their own websites are supposed to post them there, as well. It could not be found on BPD's website on Tuesday.

The reports are designed to collect data on officer-involved shootings that result in injury or death. They do not require a narrative.

Instead, the 13-item questionnaires ask for information like the age, gender and race of the officer and the person shot, as well as date, time and location. It also asks whether the injured or deceased person carried a weapon and what prompted the incident.

Police departments do not face a penalty for missing the filing deadline, the AG spokesperson said.

EBesson@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/EricBesson_news