Fresno family pleads for outrage, justice after Texas brother killed by police officer

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A Fresno family is pleading for people to remember the Texas man shot and killed a month ago by a rookie police officer in a small town.

"He was quiet," said Raylisa Price, whose brother, Jonathan, was gunned down Oct. 3. "He wasn't a mean person or violent. (He) just kept to himself, doing his thing."

Jonathan Price lived and died in northeast Texas, but he had two sisters, a nephew, and a niece in Fresno.

"All right," said family and friends as they released balloons in his honor. "This is for Jonathan Price. Say his name. Jonathan Price."

The name and the spirit of Jonathan Price flew across three states Tuesday as family members and friends marked his 32nd birthday.

The manner of his death made no sense to Jonathan's sister, Raylisa, who talked to Action News from her home in Fresno on her brother's birthday.

"He was just kind-hearted, like just soft-spoken," she said. "I've never seen him mad. Even if he was mad at something, he was just quiet, just mellow."

Rookie Wolfe City police officer Shaun Lucas had answered the call to break up a domestic violence incident when he came across Jonathan.

Friends like former major league baseball player Will Middlebrooks say Jonathan had broken up the fight by the time Lucas got there.

Raylisa Price thinks the 22-year-old may have been the only police officer in town who didn't know her brother, but Jonathan treated him like any other law enforcement.

"Greeted him, wanted to shake his hand, asking him how he's doing, that's just how he was." she said. "So to tase him and shoot him up like that, I'm just shocked."

Lucas said he tried to detain Jonathan and when he struggled, he fired four shots -- deadly shots.

At Jonathan's funeral, family members said we should all strive to be like the always smiling city employee, fitness trainer, and mentor to dozens of kids.

"Do like Jonathan," said his aunt, Ola Fields. "Do the best you can every day. He didn't pick and choose what day he would be a good person. He did good every day."

In an affidavit supporting the arrest of Lucas on murder charges, Texas Rangers said the entire incident was caught on body camera, and possibly on a surveillance camera too.

They've said Jonathan was in a non-threatening posture when Lucas shot him.

His sister wants to make sure people in the Central Valley and across the country remember her brother, and she wants Lucas to languish and be forgotten in prison.

"Because if my brother has to die and we can never see him again, he should never be able to see his family again," Raylisa Price said.

A grand jury convened Oct. 30 to decide what charges, if any, Lucas should face in court.

For now, he's in jail on a $1 million bail.