Dallas Grand Jury Indicts Police Officer In January Shooting Death

A Dallas County grand jury has indicted Christopher Hess, an officer for the Dallas Police Department, in the January death of Genevive Ann Dawes. Hess is charged with aggravated assault by a public servant, a first-degree felony. Hess, a 10-year DPD veteran, killed Dawes, 21, in January at the Five Trees...

By Stephen Young

June 22, 2017

Dallas police officer Christopher Hess shot and killed Genevive Ann Dawes in January at the Five Trees apartment complex. Google Maps

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A Dallas County grand jury has indicted Christopher Hess, an officer for the Dallas Police Department, in the January death of Genevive Ann Dawes. Hess is charged with aggravated assault by a public servant, a first-degree felony.

Hess, a 10-year DPD veteran, killed Dawes, 21, in January at the Five Trees apartment complex on Eastside Avenue. Hess and his partner, Jason Kimpel, responded to call about a suspicious person just before 5 a.m. Jan. 18. Information about the car in which Dawes and Virgilio Rosales were riding matched that of a car that had been stolen in Irving.

When Hess and Kimple approached the car on foot and ordered Dawes and Rosales to get out, Dawes allegedly started the car and reversed into the officers' patrol car, according to DPD. She then unsuccessfully tried to drive through some white lattice fencing surrounding the parking lot before throwing the car in reverse again. When she did so, Hess and Kimple shot at the car, killing Dawes, police said. Rosales was injured by broken glass. According to Rebecca Lopez of WFAA-TV (Channel 8), Hess fired the fatal shots.

Yesterday, a Dallas County grand jury declined to indict Kimpel for his role in the incident. If Hess is convicted, he faces at least five years in prison. Hess is only the third DPD officer to be criminally charged in a police shooting since 1973, when Officer Darrell Cain was convicted of murdering 12-year-old Santos Rodriguez. Amy Wilburn and Cardan Spencer, indicted in 2014 in separate shootings, are still awaiting trials.

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