The Huntsville Item, Huntsville, TX

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November 16, 2007

Shooting may have been self-defense

By Robbie Byrd

The Walker County Sheriff’s Department has released the name of a man who was shot and killed by another man in Riverside Tuesday night.

Jerry Wayne Bratton, a 40-year-old white male from Crockett, was killed just before 8 p.m. when another man — whose name county officials are not releasing — shot him in front of the Valero store off state Highway 19, just over the Trinity River bridge.

Lt. Charlie Perkins with the Walker County Sheriff’s Department said that when police responded to the scene they found Bratton lying on the ground with one gunshot wound to the torso.

“There was some altercation between the victim and the suspect and the victim was shot,” Perkins said Friday.

Walker County Criminal District Attorney David Weeks said his office had been brought into the investigation early to determine if the suspect shot Bratton in self-defense.

“There are certainly some elements of self-defense that we’re going to present in detail to the grand jury,” Weeks said. “There was enough evidence there that I thought there were no felony charges appropriate at this point.”

No charges have been brought against the subject, Perkins said, and that Sheriff’s Department officials are still working the investigation.

As a matter of policy, police are not releasing the name of the suspect since he is not being formally charged in the incident.

“The case is still under investigation (and) there’s a limit to what we can release,” Perkins said.

Multiple interviews over the course of several days limited what police could say, Perkins said.

“There’s all kind of different things we’re looking at,” Perkins said, “but the case won’t be presented to (the district attorney) until it’s complete.”

Bratton’s body was sent to the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s office for an autopsy, but Perkins said no results have been reported yet.

Witnesses to the incident — who spoke on the condition of anonymity — said Bratton taunted the shooter with a knife.

As is the case with probable self-defense shootings, Weeks said his office presents those cases to a grand jury for their decision. The case will go the grand jury after the Sheriff’s Department completes its investigation.

“We'll just follow through with it,” Week said. “It's looking like a self-defense case. The Sheriff’s Department is working the case really hard and (they) have done some great work (and) I’m sure we’ll have all the facts to present to the (grand jury).”

Weeks said the next grand jury will meet the week of Nov. 26.

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