Bexar County lawyers offer $100,000 to parents of 6-year-old boy slain by deputies — an amount the family called ‘inadequate’

Lawyers representing sheriff’s deputies who shot and killed a 6-year-old in 2017 offered the boy’s family $100,000 to settle a civil lawsuit — an amount the family described in court records as inadequate.

The offer comes about six months after the family of Kameron Prescott filed the suit in federal court, alleging the deputies were reckless and negligent when they fired more than 18 rounds at an unarmed suspect in front of a mobile home owned by the boy’s father.

The shooting at a mobile home park in Schertz on Dec. 21, 2017, followed a chaotic hours-long search through Northeast Bexar County for Amanda Jones, a car-theft suspect wanted on warrants for fraud and credit card abuse.

Four deputies closed in on Jones as she stood on the porch.

Deputies later said they thought Jones was holding an object they feared was a firearm, though investigators didn't recover an object next to her body. They fired on Jones at least 18 times, killing her.

Inside the mobile home was Kameron, a first-grader who hours earlier had started his winter break from Wiederstein Elementary School. Multiple bullets pierced the thin shell of the mobile home. Two of them struck Kameron.

He was transported to University Hospital, where he later was pronounced dead. 

In a 16-page letter sent June 30, lawyers representing the Prescott family called on Bexar County officials to offer a more reasonable settlement and to reform the department’s training policies.

“If there were one thing that comes from this case, it would be that a situation like this doesn’t happen again,” Tom Crosley, the father’s attorney, said Thursday. “There should be no scenario where deputies use high-powered weapons in a mobile home community where residents are clearly inside.”

Crosley declined to say if the county had changed its offer since he wrote the letter.

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar gives direction to deputies near the place where four deputies would later shoot 6-year-old Kameron Prescott, killing him on Dec. 21, 2017. They had been chasing a woman wanted for nonviolent criminal charges. They suspected she was armed and killed her.

Photo: Bob Owen /Staff photographer

“They are interested in having discussions,” Crosley said. “Beyond that, it’s been very nonspecific.”

Earlier this year, lawyers with the Bexar County district attorney’s office who represent the county filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. A judge has not yet ruled on the motion.

On Thursday, the district attorney’s office and Sheriff’s Office declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation. 

In January 2018, less than a month after the shooting, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said his office would review its training policies to determine whether changes in protocol were needed.

He said at the time that it was too soon to say whether training was an issue in the shooting but that it was important for law enforcement officials to continually reevaluate training.

Earlier this month, during an online forum on police reform, Salazar said his office did make some changes after the shooting in Schertz, though he did not provide specifics.

“We just put out a brand new policy that is all encompassing,” Salazar said. “And look, it’s not the last time we’re going to change policy. To me, a true law enforcement policy is a living document. You’ve got to always be reviewing it and altering it and tweaking it.”

Tip led to search

Deputies first began pursuing Jones, who friends and family remembered as a troubled yet loyal person, after they were tipped off to her whereabouts by a bounty hunter, Crosley said.

The Sheriff’s Office said at the time that deputies found Jones hiding in a closet at her home, at which point she brandished a gun and threatened to shoot a deputy as she ran from the home.

Crosley said that the deputy conceded in a follow-up interview that he never actually saw a gun, but rather closed his eyes and flinched when Jones ran past him.

A nearly two-hour manhunt followed. At one point, Jones entered the home owned by Christopher Prescott, who was divorced from Kameron’s mother.

Kameron was in his room watching the TV show, “Paw Patrol.”

Moments before deputies shot at Jones, a state trooper who was in a helicopter overhead told deputies over the radio that he couldn’t see any weapons, Crosley said. 

It was obvious, Crosley said, people were inside the home, given that a car was in the driveway and Kameron’s bicycle was on the porch.

Ron Lawrence, left, comforts his daughter, Kallie Lawrence, 11, who knew Kameron Prescott, a 6-year-old boy who was shot by Bexar County Sheriff’s deputies while they were pursuing a suspect in the Pecan Grove mobile home park in Schertz on Dec. 21, 2017.

Photo: Bob Owen /Staff photographer

“They did not take precaution in light of the obvious presence of people in the home,” Crosley wrote in the letter. “They did not resist gunfire even though any bullet would easily penetrate the thin walls of the mobile home. Rather, the deputies approached the entrance, guns drawn and ready to engage.”

Crosley also questioned why one of the deputies used an AR-15.

“If you’re going to use a high-powered rifle, you should be aware of everything around your target,” Crosley said. “An AR-15 is not the weapon of choice for a situation like this.”

Instead, Crosley said the deputies should have tried to de-escalate the situation. He said the deputies involved in the shooting never had completed such training until after the shooting.

Crosley also questioned why Salazar — who campaigned on a platform of increased training and had been in office nearly a year — didn’t make changes to the agency’s de-escalation policies until after the shooting.

“If the county and Sheriff Salazar knew, at least as early as when he took office, that its use of force policy was wordy, confusing, and ambiguous, and that its deputies needed additional training, why did that not take place prior to this terrible tragedy?” Crosley asked. 

Days after the shootings, the Sheriff's Office continued to look for the gun that deputies alleged Jones had. An exhaustive search of the area failed to turn up a firearm.

Later that evening, investigators found a landscape stake under the porch. But Christopher Prescott denied Jones was holding the stake. Even if she was, Crosley said, the stake did not match the description of any weapon.

Amanda Jones was the suspect Bexar County Sheriff’s deputies were chasing when they caught up with her at the Pecan Grove mobile home park in Schertz. Deputies suspected she had a weapon and killed her. Their bullets also fatally wounded 6-year-old Kameron Prescott, who was playing inside his home on Dec. 21, 2017.

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A year later, a Bexar County grand jury declined to indict the deputies.

Crosley said it’s important to note that Christopher Prescott is a Marine and his father —Kameron’s grandfather — is a retired San Antonio police officer.

“We’re not anti-law-enforcement,” Crosley said. “But we do expect our law enforcement to follow the rules and only resort to deadly force as a last resort.”

Friends and family have described Kameron, a Tiger Scout in Pack 51 in Schertz, as a happy child who enjoyed riding his bike and playing Ninja Turtles. He wanted to become a firefighter when he grew up.

“His dad is trying to remember the good memories he’s had with his son,” Crosley said. “But Kameron was an only child. His loss has left a big hole.”