A grand jury has declined to indict a Harris County sheriff's deputy for fatally shooting a county jail inmate at a Houston hospital where the prisoner awaiting treatment took a medical intern hostage.
Deputy Adriel Hinojosa wasn't charged in the October 2016 shooting at Ben Taub Hospital. Authorities said 46-year-old prisoner Ricky Lynn Hall fashioned a piece of metal from headphones and used it as a weapon. When he refused to drop it said he intended to harm the student, he was shot. Hall died two weeks later.
Records showed Hall had a long criminal record. He'd been taken into custody a week earlier as a parole violator.
The Houston Chronicle reported the sheriff's office may have violated its own policies by leaving Hall unattended before the shooting.
