The City of College Station released a statement in response to a lawsuit filed this week in connection to the February 2023 police shooting of 22 year-old Mark Hopkins.
The federal lawsuit was filed in Houston by Hopkins’ parents and his girlfriend at the time, Alyssa Wilson, who was in the home when the warrant was served.
Click HERE to read the news release from the legal firm representing the family of Mark Hopkins.
In October 2023, the parents filed a motion in Brazos County district court in an attempt to get more information from CSPD.
Statement from the City of College Station:
The City of College Station will vigorously defend all its officers’ actions alleged in the complaint. The filing of this complaint is the first communication the City has had from the Hopkins family or their attorneys in over a year.
The City still maintains that the affidavit and warrant were executed and presented correctly on Feb. 8, 2023, based on a lengthy narcotics investigation regarding Abraham Escobar, a known drug dealer later indicted on two counts of Engaging in Organized Criminal Activity and two counts of Manufacturing and Delivering, among other charges related to the investigation. Escobar was in a dating relationship with Lauren Decoux, who shared the home at 925 Spring Loop with Mark Hopkins. Escobar had unfettered access and was repeatedly observed at the residence during the investigation.
Mr. Hopkins was not a criminal suspect in the investigation. However, probable cause affidavits and warrants identify all occupants of a suspected location, and Mr. Hopkins was a resident at 925 Spring Loop, where Escobar frequently visited Ms. Decoux while dealing and transporting narcotics.
Based on valid probable cause, a judge approved and signed the knock-and-announce warrant, and the College Station Police Department conducted a legal warrant service under established policies and procedures.
During the warrant service, the officers repeatedly and loudly stated, “Police search warrant,” before breaching the door and again upon entering the residence before Mr. Hopkins opened fire on the officers. Marked patrol units outside also had red and blue emergency flashing lights, and an officer in a marked patrol unit announced several times on a loudspeaker that the police department was serving a warrant.
Chief Couch immediately requested that the Texas Rangers begin a thorough, independent, and unbiased investigation. The Texas Rangers, the Brazos County district attorney, and the Brazos County grand jury all found no wrongdoing on the part of the officers. The City has full confidence in those findings.
Our sympathies remain for the Hopkins family and everyone involved.
Original story, October 9, 2023:
The parents of a College Station man who was shot and killed by a College Station policeman in February 2023 take the city of College Station to Brazos County district court in an attempt to get more information.
The lawyers representing the parents have also hired a public relations firm. Their representative issued a release saying Mark Norris was killed “in an explosive, military-style raid based on a “glaringly false” (search) warrant.”
The district court action, according to the P.R. firm, sued the City of College Station “to force an end to the city’s continuing coverup in the case”.
The court filing says CSPD has provided the parents only highly edited body camera video showing officers executing a search warrant that led to what they described as a “hail of bullets” resulting in Hopkins being killed in his bedroom.
The court filing also says Hopkins and his girlfriend did not participate in any illegal activities. But on the application to get the search warrant, they were listed as “suspicious parties”. The target of the search warrant was the boyfriend of Hopkins female roommate.
The court filing also mentions that the CSPD officer who shot and killed Hopkins was not indicted by a grand jury.
A statement from the city of College Station says in part that the city “disagrees strongly with the statements made by the family’s attorney. The City has met and worked with the family’s attorney while complying with the law, has cooperated with the family, and has offered to meet directly with them. The City will respond accordingly to the petition to investigate the claim before a suit is filed”.