This blog originally appeared at CBS NEWS.
COLLIN COUNTY — Garrett Foster’s family is voicing their concerns over Governor Abbott’s decision to pardon Daniel Perry, who was convicted of murder following a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Austin.
“I think they’re using my dead child to make a political statement,” said Sheila Foster, Garrett’s mother.
Nearly four years after losing her son, her heart still aches.
Garrett, a 28-year-old Air Force veteran, had joined Black Lives Matter protesters in Downtown Austin in the summer of 2020, along with his fiancée, Tiffany.
Daniel Perry, an Army sergeant, had posted on social media, “I might have to kill a few people on my way to work, they are rioting outside my apartment complex.”
Perry made the post shortly before running a red light and driving into the crowd of protesters.
Foster, who had an assault rifle strapped over his shoulder, was shot and killed when he approached Perry’s car. Perry, who was also armed, fired the fatal shot.
A Travis County jury found Perry guilty of murder and sentenced him to 25 years in prison.
On Thursday, Gov. Abbott approved a full pardon for Perry, recommended by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. Abbott stated, “Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense and cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive district attorney… I will use my constitutional authority to override his leftist policies when needed.”
Perry was immediately released from prison, and Sheila Foster received a phone call at her home in rural Collin County.
Sheila recalled the moment she was notified, saying, “The first thing I said after I collapsed was, ‘Garrett, I’m so sorry.'”
Foster’s family noted that multiple witnesses testified during the trial that Garrett was not pointing his gun at Perry when he was shot, which led to a murder conviction they now feel has been rendered meaningless.
Milton Wright, Foster’s grandfather, remarked, “It’s making a mockery of our justice system.”
Sheila expressed concern that the governor’s decision endangers anyone legally carrying a firearm in Texas.
“You can shoot somebody if you see their gun and it scares you — that’s what he’s saying,” she said.
When asked what she would tell the governor, Sheila responded, “I would ask him what the heck he is thinking and what kind of precedent he is setting in an open-carry state… He’s saying Garrett deserved to die because he was carrying a gun.”
The Foster family holds on to a slim hope that a possible lawsuit could be filed or a higher court might intervene to overturn the governor’s pardon.
Sheila’s anger only temporarily masks the anguish she feels, which she says will resurface when another year passes without her son in July.
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