Brazos County DA discusses what prosecutors are doing now following Maine mass shooting
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – People across the United States are grieving following a mass shooting in Maine Wednesday night.
When something like this happens, there’s almost always some sort of connection to someone here at home. Brazos County District Attorney Jarvis Parsons went to law school in Portland, Maine. It’s about 45 minutes from where the shooting took place in Lewiston.
Parsons says when he first heard the news, he was shocked.
“I know the Lewiston area. I have friends in the Lewiston area. My old pastor lives in Lewiston,” Parsons said. “I immediately got on the horn and called and texted people from Lewiston to Portland to Saco to all the surrounding areas Gorham and Windham. And so just trying to figure out ‘hey is everybody ok?’”
He said he would not be a prosecutor without his time in Maine.
“That was my first internship with prosecution. That’s where I got the, I say, the bug for prosecution,” Parsons said. “It was an absolute experience and I wouldn’t take it back. I would do it like 10 times over again. I had so much fun up there and I learned so much from so many people.”
Parsons is now a prosecutor and had to look into and investigate a mass shooting here at home following the shooting at Kent Moore Cabinets. He says the first thing prosecutors do in these situations is check on their loved ones. After that, they get back to the business at hand.
“How do we deal with this in the event that this individual is captured is this person gonna be prosecuted for the crime?.. What charges should there be going forth?” Parsons said. “Reaching out to the Victim Assistance coordinators and victim services. To the families who do not just have deceased members but individuals who have been injured because that is a huge huge part of our job is connecting with victims both with law enforcement side and with the prosecution side.”
He says the biggest challenge prosecutors will face in the coming days is making sure they get all the information on the person who did the crime.
“We’re getting military records, cell phone records, social media records, talking not only to the family and friends of individuals who were affected as victims, but also talking to the family and individual friends of the individual who may have committed the crime and getting those individuals to talk to them early and often to make sure that we know everything about the the victims, as well as everything about the shooter so we can make up an informed decision.”
Parsons joined News 3 at 6 from Austin where he was participating in a Sexual Assault Tax Force.
“Individuals from a bunch of different fields, whether it be prosecution Victim Advocacy law enforcement a number of different areas come together to try to find the best practices and how to prosecute how to prevent sex assaults how to provide survivors with services,” Parsons said.
You can watch our full interview with the District Attorney in the player above.
