BELTON — Todd Cavanaugh was walking into the Tractor Supply Co. store in Temple on Dec. 2, 2019, when he saw flashing blue and red lights reflecting off of a tree line in the vicinity.
It was coming from the westbound-traveling patrol vehicle of then-Temple Police officer Carmen DeCruz — a Killeen resident currently on trial for a second-degree felony manslaughter charge in connection with the shooting death of Temple resident Michael Dean — along Little River Road.
“I was going to get dog food … and then I saw and heard the sirens of the police,” Cavanaugh testified in the 146th District Court at the Bell County Justice Center on Thursday.
The Temple resident, who works as a manager for a landscaping company in Austin, described how he proceeded to watch the Chrysler PT Cruiser that Dean was driving slow to a stop at the intersection of Little River Road and Loop 363, where DeCruz pulled his marked patrol vehicle in front, approached the passenger side, and demanded that Dean turn off the vehicle and hand him the keys.
“I could hear him issuing commands. He was saying, ‘Driver, show me your hands’ and ‘Shut the vehicle off,’” Cavanaugh, the first of several civilian witnesses called to testify in the trial, said. “That made me kind of walk toward the vehicle, wanting to assist if need be or whatever was needed. I was on my way to the vehicle when I heard the final commands.
“That’s when the pop went off and I ran over there as fast as I could.”
That pop was the single gunshot from DeCruz’s Glock 22, a .40-caliber service weapon, that struck Dean, still in his vehicle, on the right side of his forehead.
“As I came around the corner, the driver of the vehicle was half in and out of the vehicle, and the officer was on top of him trying to administer first aid,” Cavanaugh said. “He was saying, ‘Please stay with me. Stay with me.’”
However, the life-saving measures attempted, he emphasized, did not seem promising.
“He proceeded around to his vehicle to grab his first aid kit, came back around and started to wrap gauze around his head,” Cavanaugh said as Christine Dean, the victim’s mother, wiped tears from her eyes. “It wasn’t really helping. There was lots of blood.”
A supervising officer arrived at the scene minutes later and pulled DeCruz away from Dean, as other Temple Police officers took over the first aid measures that included chest compressions and the use of an automated external defibrillator.
Cavanaugh immediately identified himself as a witness.
“I explained to him what had gone on,” he said. “He actually pulled myself and the officer to the side and asked me to follow him to the police station. As we’re walking across the street, (DeCruz) said, ‘Lt. I (expletive) my career. My career is over. I (expletive) my family.’ Then he dropped to his knees.”
Cavanaugh, who attempted to console the sobbing DeCruz in that moment, was not prepared for what came next.
“He stood up, and as he stood up, he un-holstered his pistol. He just kind of kept it between him and myself and he just lifted it up,” he said. “The lieutenant caught eye of it and said, ‘Re-holster your weapon.’ I wasn’t sure what was gonna transpire from that. Could he pull it on himself? Could he pull it on myself? Could he pull it on both of us? But he did re-holster his weapon.”
Although Cavanaugh highlighted that quick series of events when he gave his statement to a detective at the Temple Police Department at around 9 p.m. on Dec. 2, 2019, he emphasized how it was omitted from his written statement — a document that he did not type up himself.
“It kind of made me feel like what I was saying didn’t matter because they already knew,” he said. “I was a little (ticked) because it was my statement. I was a witness to all of that and I just felt like it was shrugged off. But I just went with it saying in my head, ‘OK, well, it’s already been handled.’ I initialed the front and I signed the back and we just went from there.”
However, Lytza Rojas, one of DeCruz’s defense attorneys, noted how Cavanaugh had the opportunity to write his statement himself and that there were several additional opportunities for Cavanaugh to set the record straight with the Temple Police Department.
“1,135 days separate your first statement to your second additional statement,” she said. “You were given contact information, direct phone lines, emails, every opportunity at your hands to make these changes … and you didn’t do that.”
Temple Police Detective Tom Wolff, who took Cavanaugh’s statement that night, explained why there was that discrepancy.
“I’m not writing it word for word on the statement. I’m summarizing some of it, reading it back to him, and making sure that he’s OK with what I’m typing,” he said during his testimony. “That is the reason why we provide a (business) card and I’ll tell them, ‘Hey, if you think of anything else, give us a call back.’”
The full interview also was recorded, saved and turned in as evidence — footage Wolff stressed is meant to serve in conjunction with the written statement.
“Sometimes when they talk, I may miss a word or two, which is what the recording is for,” he said.
Although DeCruz has not testified, an excerpt from an oral statement he gave to Texas Ranger Samuel “Travis” Dendy — who the Temple Police Department called in to lead the investigation — on Dec. 5, 2019 was played in court. In it, he discussed how he met resistance obtaining the keys, attached to a makeshift lanyard, from Dean’s hands.
“He reaches up to give me his keys. I had one end and he had to the other end,” DeCruz said on the recording. “I keep (saying), ‘Give me the keys’ and as I pull away, he tugs back and then I tug back. I don’t know how many times we tugged, maybe two or three times. Then as I’m tensing up to get a good grip on the key, that’s when my gun went off. He just slumps over. I holster my weapon, reach in the car and grab him, I think under his arms, and I pull him up to my chest and out of the car. That’s when I see blood.”
His voice began to tremble as he recounted the first aid measures he performed.
“I think I told him, ‘You got to stay with me,’” DeCruz said. “I reached down, tried to feel a pulse, and I’m not feeling anything.”
State District Judge Paul LePak of the 264th District Court dismissed the courtroom for the day around 5 p.m. with Dendy’s testimony expected to resume at 9 a.m. Friday in the 146th District Court, a larger courtroom that has been used for the trial since jury selection began on Monday.
The remainder of the oral statement DeCruz gave to the Texas Rangers also is expected to be played at that time.
If convicted of manslaughter, DeCruz could face two to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $10,000.
Dean’s shooting death received national attention as officer-involved shootings of black men were publicized following George Floyd’s death while in police custody in Michigan in 2020.