ODESSA, Texas — The Ector County Courthouse lawn was covered with protesters Friday morning. The protesters were holding signs chanting things like, "Justice for Tremaine," Black Lives Matter" and "No justice, No Peace."
The lawyers representing Howell’s family, Justine Moore and Paul Stafford, saying they are not done fighting this case.
“With our fight, which is going to be in civil court now because the district attorney has determined that criminal charges are not appropriate," Moore said. "We will seek out justice for Tremaine and the citizens of Ector County because this is not a black problem...it is a community problem."
An autopsy by Tarrant County medical officials determined Howell’s cause of death was due to methamphetamine toxicity.
But Howell’s civil attorneys say they believe there is more to the story.
“We also have an independent autopsy, because at the end of the day we don’t trust law enforcement auditing other law enforcement," Moore said. "We’re still waiting on that report.”
They believe that, "excessive force killed Howell."
“The DA said there was excessive force, the implication is police misconduct," Moore said. "We haven’t seen the whole file and maybe it wasn’t provided to us ahead of the Grand Jury because we would have come to a different decision.”
Despite the Grand Jury’s decision on not moving forward with criminal charges, the protesters believe Howell’s story is another case of racial injustice.
“Breonna, Jacob, George, people who weren’t on video...unheard...unseen," Stafford said. "Disrespected, disregarded, disenfranchised, man-slaughtered, misinformed, mistreated, who’s with us?”
On Saturday the protesters will be at the the Ector County sheriff’s office
We reached out to Sheriff Mike Griffis for comment, he tells us he has been advised to not discuss the details of this case at this time.