ICYMI: Texas City Cop Loses Job After Detaining a Man For Driving Through A Buc-ee’s Parking Lot

If you scroll through social media for any period of time, you will find videos of police stops.

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Most of the time, it's a video of the suspect behaving badly, but occasionally you will find a video of a police officer, not doing the best job they should.

First of all, most police officers do their jobs and do their jobs well.  They lay their life on the line every single day to keep us protected.  

However, with that said, there are some that just might have gotten a bit entitled and this seems to be the case in this instance.

Back in April, Texas City Police Officer Scott Harrell pulled Christopher Shull over in the Buc-ee's parking lot in Texas City.

Officer Harrell explained the reason he pulled over Shull.  The officer said that Shull sped through the parking lot driving over parking spaces and nearly hitting a car.  He went on to tell Shull that he wouldn't ticket him because he ran out of tickets.

Disregarding Traffic Control Device

The offense that Officer Hull believes that Shull committed was, "disregarding traffic control device."   Shull responded with "on private property," and the officer answered yes.

Officer Harrell tells Shull that he doesn't appreciate the attitude, and Shull scoffs at the comment.   Then Officer Harrell proceeds to tell him that what he did is an arrestable offense and that he could be arrested for Class A Wreckless Driving.

An Arrestable Offense

After a few minutes of back and forth, Officer Harrell places Shull in handcuffs and places him in the back of his police cruiser. As he is putting Shull in the car, he tells him "I'm afraid you are going to continue to do this unsafe behavior."

Is he being arrested for something he may continue to do in the future?  Is he being arrested for getting irritated at the cop for not genuinely being apologetic or questioning the officer?  Or is he getting arrested for the reason he pulled him over, "disregarding traffic control device?"

Shull asks Officer Harrell if they can cool off.  The officer tells him "If I don't follow through with this you are just going to go down to the precinct and file a complaint."

After the other officer arrived on the scene, Harrell let Shull out of the police cruiser, uncuffed him, and wrote a citation up for the offense. After receiving the citation Shull left.

The bodycam of the incident went viral

On May 24th the Texas City Chief of Police released a statement.  Officer Harrel was placed on administrative duty and they were opening an investigation.  Harrell has been with the Texas City Police Department since 2018.

An official ruling was issued on September 8, 2023, on the incident

According to a statement released by Cheif of Police Landis Cravens, issued on September 8th,

On September 1, 2023, in my first official act as Chief of Police, I have taken the action to indefinitely suspend (terminate) the employment of Scott Harrell, the officer involved in this incident. This decision was made after a thorough review of the circumstances and is in line with our commitment to maintaining the highest standards of professionalism, ethics, and community service.

The citation Shull received was dismissed.

Christopher Shull posted the full body cam video on his YouTube: