Texas cop charged with murder after unarmed black man Jonathan Price was shot dead as he ‘tried to break up fight’

A POLICE officer has been charged with murder after an unarmed black man was stunned by a taser and shot to death, it's reported.

Shaun Lucas responded to a disturbance call involving Jonathan Price, 31, who reportedly intervened when he saw a man and a woman brawling outside a gas station on Saturday night in Wolfe City, Texas.

The cop tried to detain Jonathan, who reportedly resisted in a non-threatening posture and started to walk away.

Lucas allegedly used his taser and shot Price. He was taken to hospital where he died, it's reported.

"The preliminary investigation indicates that the actions of Officer Lucas were not objectionably reasonable," a Texas Rangers statement said.

Lucas has been released on a $1million bond, WFAA TV in Dallas reports.

Civil rights lawyer Lee Merritt – who is working with the family to "get justice" for the 31-year old – said he raised his hands and attempted to explain the situation to police when they arrived on the scene.

"Police fired tasers at him and when his body convulsed from the electrical current, they 'perceived a threat' and shot him to death," Mr Merritt wrote on Facebook.

The lawyer described the victim as a "known hometown hero".

Childhood friend and former professional baseball player Will Middlebrooks described the killing as "purely an act of racism".

Black Lives Matter protests have been ongoing since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the end of the May, with national attention being drawn to how police treat people of color.

Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Elijah McClain, and Jacob Blake are all well-known names now; each was a victim of police violence.

Black Americans are shot at a disproportionate rate. They account for less than 13 per cent of the US population, but are killed by police at more than twice the rate of white Americans, the Washington Post reports.

Following the death of George Floyd, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was charged with second-degree murder, third degree murder and manslaughter.

Former officers Thomas Lane, J Kueng and Tou Thao were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter.

Ben Crump, the attorney general for George Floyd's family, said: "The only overdose that killed George Floyd was an overdose of excessive force and racism by the Minneapolis Police Department."

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