A federal grand jury has indicted Jose Santiago Pantoja-Morales on a firearms charge after prosecutors alleged that he took a Dallas Independent School District police officer’s gun and shot the officer during an August struggle. The indictment charges Pantoja-Morales, a 27-year-old Mexican national, with possession of a firearm by an alien unlawfully present in the United States.
According to a complaint summarized by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas, a co-worker flagged down the officer after Pantoja-Morales entered the median of the Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway on Aug. 6. The officer offered him a ride to a safer location. Prosecutors allege that Pantoja-Morales began searching the officer’s bag, resisted when the officer tried to remove him from the vehicle and seized the officer’s firearm during the ensuing struggle.
The complaint alleges that Pantoja-Morales fired once, striking the officer in the femoral artery of his right leg. The officer regained control of the weapon, and law enforcement arrested Pantoja-Morales after he fled. CBS Texas identified the wounded officer as Justin Jones and reported that another Dallas ISD officer treated him before he was taken to Parkland Hospital.
The grand jury returned the indictment on Sept. 16. If convicted of the federal firearms offense, Pantoja-Morales faces a statutory maximum of 15 years in prison. An indictment is an allegation, not a conviction, and he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
