Canadian wheelchair user shot and killed in Texas

From Canwest News Service:

FORT STOCKTON, Texas — A wheelchair-bound man who was shot and killed in a parking lot by a Texas Ranger Nov. 20 was a New Brunswick singer-songwriter, according to U.S. media reports.

Local Texas TV station, NewsWest 9, reported Nov. 23 that the man has been identified as 37-year-old Thomas Andrew Reid of Fredericton, N.B.

It's alleged Reid was shot by a Pecos County deputy after he grabbed another deputy's gun and fired a shot during a confrontation in the parking lot of the Deluxe Inn in Fort Stockton, in western Texas.

The two deputies had arrived at the inn around 4 p.m. Nov. 20 after a disturbance.

Pecos County Sheriff Cliff Harris told NewsWest 9 that the two had first tried to calm down Reid and then attempted to arrest him.

"He was screaming and hollering and when they got there, they tried to calm him down," the sheriff told the Odessa American newspaper. "They got him calmed down and he started up again. . . when they tried to place the subject under arrest, a scuffle broke out."

The two deputies involved have been identified as Deputy Connie Bassham and Deputy Ronnie Turner.

Bassham allegedly fired two shots, striking Reid.

Reid had been taken to the inn by the police on Thursday after he was charged with evading arrest that day.

He allegedly took police on a highway chase after they were called in for a road rage incident. The sheriff said Reid was close to running over the country's fire chief and a number of deputies before he was stopped with a spike belt.

The Texas Rangers are investigating the police shooting.